Thrill Hill bridge now open

By Editor | June 6, 2018 |

Though the state still needs to complete an inspection on the new Thrill Hill bridge, that bridge is now open for traffic.

Mayor Rick Gottman announced on Friday afternoon that the city had been given the OK to open the bridge, allowing for traffic on Thrill Hill Road between U.S. Route 51 and Zent Drive.
At Monday’s city council meeting, Gottman said, “I want to thank the people who were patient and didn’t slander and badger the city (about) getting it done.
“We didn’t have the money originally to start the project, and the taxpayers of the city are paying to put the bridge in,” he said.
“It does lie within the city, but a lot of people are out on social media slamming the city about the bridge,” implying that those are people live outside city limits and don’t pay city taxes.
“They don’t understand the time it takes to get through state approval and all of the processes it goes through to get it done,” Gottman said.
“It was done in winter months … and there were a lot of factors in it,” he said.
Those factors, Gottman said, included vandalism at the site. Twice, he said, survey stakes were pulled out and the stake holes covered, meaning that the area had to be resurveyed.
Marlin Filer, the city’s director of public works, echoed the mayor’s statement.
“I think the project went very well,” he said.
“There are main factors – you’ve got to deal with IDOT (Illinois Department of Transportation) and (Illinois Department of) Natural Resources … there are many things we had to deal with for that bridge,” Filer said.
“It wasn’t just, snap your fingers and there’s a bridge,” Filer said.
That section of Thrill Hill was closed to traffic after the bridge was deemed unsafe in early May 2014.
In March of last year, the city council approved its share of the $487,050 project – $98,000. A federal grant provided the other 80 percent of the project cost – just under $390,000.