Roots Road reopening delayed
<p dir="ltr"><span>The wait for the reopening of Roots Road is going to last a little longer.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>In a Sept. 8 email to the Herald Tribune, Illinois Department of Transportation Project Engineer Dave Parker said work on the Roots Road bridge over the Kaskaskia River has been hampered by delays - causing workers to miss their goal of having the route open by Labor Day.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"I don't have a hard and fast date for the opening, but we have 10 working days left to complete the work and will probably need every one of them," Parker wrote. "IDOT defines 'working day' as days Monday through Friday that a contractor would be expected to work.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"No working days are charged for holidays, inclement weather, etc. Unfortunately, the weather has hampered our progress but hopefully drier fall-like weather is approaching."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The railroad bridge portion of the project has already been completed, with the two bridges having been originally constructed and completed by IDOT in 1961.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>During today's meeting of the Randolph County Board, County Engineer Mike Riebeling stated that workers were struggling in getting the bridge painted due to foggy and humid conditions.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>IDOT announced this afternoon that the road would remain closed through Sept. 19.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Roots Road between Oakview Road and Collins Road was closed on March 16, 2015 for the project and was originally scheduled to be reopened by December 1 of that year.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>But the project was delayed when the railroad bridge ran behind schedule.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"The railroad bridge was completed last fall and steel repairs and demolition of the river bridge deck was done in the winter," said IDOT Supervising Field Engineer Joe Gasaway in previous comments to the newspaper. "Paving was done this spring."</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Keely & Sons of East St. Louis is the general contractor on the river bridge project, with an estimated price tag of $6.8 million.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Riebeling said the work has been holding up a resurfacing job on Bluff Road from Modoc to Roots Road.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>"The reason why we didn't build it last year and this year is because the state is working on that bridge," he said.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Riebeling said the county would be responsible for $276,200 of the resurfacing project, with $1,365,600 coming from federal funds and an additional $65,200 from the state.</span>
<p dir="ltr"><span>The commissioners passed a resolution during today's meeting to appropriate the county's share of the project.</span>