Joliet drawbridge closed due to worker shortage

The Brandon Road bridge was closed Friday because the state does not have enough operators to cover all six drawbridges in the Joliet area.

The worker shortfall is a short-term situation that the Illinois Department of Transportation expects to have resolved in less than a week, spokeswoman Maria Casteneda said.

“Right now, there is a short-term shortage of operators, so the decision was made to close Brandon because it has the least traffic,” Castaneda said.

The Brandon Road bridge is located just outside Joliet, and the other five drawbridges cross the Des Plaines River in downtown Joliet.

IDOT is training staff to become short-term bridge tenders as it moves to a remote control system that will require fewer operators.

That changeover is in progress, and IDOT expects to begin operating the bridges from a central location in Joliet later this year. In the meantime, IDOT has been reluctant to take on full-time operators who won’t be needed in the near future, Castaneda said.

“We don’t want to hire people and have them on for less than a year and then have to lay them off,” she said.

The Joliet bridges have been shut down frequently for the past couple of years for upgrades needed for the new remote system and maintenance issues related to the age of the bridges.

“Right now, we have all the bridges open,” Castaneda said. “There is nothing that is under repair. All these bridges have to be fully staffed 24/7.”

IDOT announced Thursday that the Brandon Road bridge, located in Joliet Township, would close at 3 p.m. Friday for “operational issues.”

IDOT has 18 tenders on staff to operate each of the six bridges around the clock. More staff is needed to accommodate time off, Castaneda said.

The staff will be supplemented by other IDOT employees who are now going through bridge tender training.

IDOT has not laid off bridge operators and does not intend to, Castaneda said. But there have been retirements leading to the operator shortage.

She said IDOT expects the staffing need will decline in the coming months because operation of bridges will be turned over to contractors for 60-day testing periods of the remote system. The Jackson Street bridge already has been tested, and the Cass Street bridge will be next in April.

Bridges will not be shut down while going through the testing stage, Castaneda said.

But the Ruby Street and Brandon Road bridges will be shut down in the coming months to be equipped for the remote system. The McDonough Street bridge was reopened Feb. 13 after being closed since Nov. 21 for upgrades.