Hollister's Plan To Fix Jefferson Street Bridge May Surprise You

JOLIET, IL — Joliet City Council candidate Hudson Hollister said the reason why the Jefferson Street Bridge remains closed and nobody is fixing it is because Joliet remains at the mercy of the Illinois Department of Transportation.

This week, Mayor Bob O'Dekirk learned the main drawbridge in Joliet, which has been closed since June 1, will now remain closed until at least October. O'Dekirk will hold a news conference Friday to blast IDOT and talk about the bridge closing's negative impact on Joliet's businesses.

Hollister is not convinced that ripping IDOT is the best approach, short-term or long-term for Joliet.

"We do have a way to get control of the bridge ourselves and to have jurisdiction ourselves," Hollister told Joliet Patch during a Wednesday morning interview.

In the city of Chicago, there's a Chicago Department of Transportation that oversees the city's many drawbridges over the Chicago River. Besides Chicago, the city of Joliet has some of the most drawbridges in the Midwest, Hollister said.

And yet when Joliet's Jefferson Street, the main thoroughfare for west-side travelers to get to the Will County Courthouse and other places on Route 52 broke down last June, the Illinois Department of Transportation did not move with any urgency to fix it.

Hollister said he wonders whether anybody at the city of Joliet even knows the name of the Illinois Department of Transportation supervisor in charge of fixing the Jefferson Street Bridge.

"We can't be at IDOT's mercy," Hollister said. "Blaming IDOT is not going to get us anywhere, but we have to have the tools to get long-term results.

Hollister said that there's a little known existing entity called the Joliet Regional Port District that, ironically, controls the Lewis Airport in Romeoville. Hollister said that this entity's power and jurisdiction can be expanded to include downtown Joliet's drawbridges.

"And we fund it with a container fee" on semi-trailers, Hollister said. "We acquire these bridges from IDOT and maintain them. This requires a state law change and requires collaboration with Elwood and Romeoville and absolute transparency."

Sometimes, weeks and months pass and not a single worker with the Illinois Department of Transportation is inspecting or fixing the Jefferson Street Bridge. Joliet Patch has not seen any IDOT workers at the Jefferson Street bridge for a long time.

Why is the main bridge in the fourth largest city of Illinois on the verge of being shutdown for perhaps a year and a half?

"IDOT doesn't prioritize it to the best of my knowledge and our city government's relationship with our state legislators, it's acrimonious to nonexistent," Hollister said. "We need to rebuild the relationship with our state legislators."

Hollister said that when he announced his run for the Joliet City Council last October, he talked about the many times in Joliet's history that the city has achieved greatness after overcoming adversity.

Now, Joliet faces another great challenge, it's broken bridge system, he said. All of downtown Joliet's drawbridges were built around 1930.

"Throughout its history, Joliet has brought competing interests together ... we need productive, friendly relationships with state officials and state legislators we need to have that," Hollister said. "It's bigger than just getting that bridge fixed this one time. There's a bigger opportunity here to do that."

At 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Illinois Department of Transportation spokeswoman Maria Castaneda issued a news release to Joliet Patch. The updated news release announced: "Jefferson Street bridge in Joliet is estimated to remain closed until October 2021, due to fabrication of mechanical components needed to complete repairs, including the main gear shaft that is needed to move the bridge.

"Traffic will continue to detour via Raynor Avenue, McDonough Street and Chicago Street."