Will bridge open for Threshermen's?

The Mill Street bridge is shown in Pontiac Wednesday morning.

With the start of school and other events around the corner, everyone is paying close attention to work on the busy Mill Street bridge in Pontiac.

City Engineer Brian Verdun gave an update to members of the Pontiac City Council this week on the several infrastructure projects happening around town, this being one of them. Many are asking when the bridge work will be complete.

“Obviously, we can’t give an exact end date but the contractor expects to be completed within the next three weeks,” said Pontiac Mayor Kelly Eckhoff.

This means it will not be completed before school starts but should be finished before the Threshermen’s Parade on the Sunday before Labor Day.

The duck race is still expected to happen this weekend as special arrangements have been made for the launch from the bridge.

There are spaces where the river is visible underneath so work is ongoing and progressing, according to the mayor.

City Hall’s parking lot is expected to be open by the end of this week but there is still plenty of work happening with the Public Safety Complex, City Hall and curb and gutter replacement on Livingston Street.

“It will impact Central School some and we will keep people notified as we know the progress of that,” adds Eckhoff.

Some of this is Rebuild Illinois money and IDOT has rules the city must follow.

Also at this week’s Pontiac City Council meeting, Farnsworth gave a presentation on the bike path grant the city received in 2021.

“We have reached phase two of the project and had a service agreement that we had to approve in order to proceed,” said Eckhoff.

Some are concerned over the length of the grant process, especially when state and federal funds are involved.

“It often takes longer than we want it to.”

The trail is being built on Com Ed right of way. Phase two involves design and title work and Eckhoff is hopeful to reach phase three faster than previous phases.

A new lease agreement was approved with the Route 66 Association which operates the museum at the old fire station which the city owns. Eckhoff calls it a “great” relationship between the two.

The city entered into a professional services agreement with an architect out of Bloomington. They have been working with city staff and the housing study group with respect to building codes and individuals who may want to have residential space above their downtown retail stores. A seminar type of meeting will be offered for interested parties.

Service agreements were authorized to get a new copy machine at the Rec Center and a machine at City Hall.