Dixon Avenue in Rock Falls to be closed as end of $2.5 million project nears

ROCK FALLS – Dixon Avenue will be closed to all traffic Monday and Tuesday so the $2.5 million project to rebuild the road can be completed.

Westbound traffic will be diverted to Avenue E, while eastbound traffic will be blocked at First Avenue/Route 40.

The road will reopen Wednesday.

By the end of the month, however, another major project – the $2.8 million replacement of the bridge a little farther east on Dixon – will begin.

The almost yearlong project to completely rebuild Dixon Avenue from Avenue A to the Hennepin Canal has been underway since Aug. 7. It’s the second-busiest street in the city, behind First Avenue/Route 40, and had deteriorated with age.

Federal money is covering $1.5 million of the project; the rest is coming from city sales tax and motor tax revenue.

The bridge over Howland Creek, which is about 2.6 miles east of city limits and accommodates more than 3,100 vehicles daily, also has deteriorated, Whiteside County engineer Russ Renner said.

The north part was built as a two-lane road in 1954, and the bridge was widened to four lanes in 1967. There was some rehabilitation work done in 1983, and now some of the rebar on the underside is exposed, among other issues, Renner said.

Work is expected to begin in late June or early July and to be completed by the end of November or the end of the year at the latest, barring any unforeseen interruptions, he said.

At least one lane on either side will be open during construction, with stoplights at either end to control the traffic.

The work has nothing to do with the city’s reconstruction of Dixon Avenue; the county has been planning the replacement and seeking funding for about five years, Renner said.

The board voted in April to provide $445,000 from the county bridges fund, and the rest of the money is coming from the federal government.

The galvanized steel tub girder system bridge will be a fairly modern structure and only the third to be built in Illinois, Renner said.

There also is one in Peoria County and one in Champaign County.