Today, I received a message in the mail from the Illinois Department of Transportation. Here’s what it said:
Governor Rod R. Blagojevich
and the Illinois Department of Transportation
in conjunction with the
Great Rivers Greenway District
Cordially invite you to the
Dedication Ceremony for the
McKinley Bridge
and the opening of
The Chamber of Commerce of
Southwestern Madison County
McKinley Bridge Roadside Park
Saturday, November 17, 2007
9:30 a.m.
Illinois Side of the Bridge
Intersection of Illinois Route 3 & Broadway
Venice, Illinois
RSVP
Ross.breckenridge@illinois.gov or 618-346-3420
Don’t worry if you didn’t get an invite. The public, one and all, can definitely come. And it’s been six years in coming since the nearly century-old McKinley Bridge, which carried an alignment of Route 66 over the Mississippi River to St. Louis, was closed for safety reasons. It’s cost $46 million to rehab the span.
According to the Belleville News-Democrat, IDOT is hinting the bridge might be ready for traffic by the Nov. 17 ceremony. Previously, the agency said it might reopen another week or so after that.
He said if the span is not yet open to traffic at that time, “it’s going to be close to the 17th. The ceremony will begin at 9:30 a.m.”
“We decided to pick a day,” he added. “If it’s open that day, it’s open. If not, it will be open in the near future.”
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is scheduled to attend the dedication, and about a thousand invitations have been sent to area businesses, civic organizations, municipalities and others. The public is welcome to attend.
If the bridge is opened to traffic before Nov. 17, it will be shut down during the dedication because the ceremony will be held on the bridge, Anderson said. People who attend will be able to walk across the bridge for an up-close view.
The News-Democrat also has a useful video that shows work that’s been done to the bridge, including new bicycle lanes.
It’s a significant and welcome development for Route 66ers. The westbound travelers who wish to avoid the interstates to drive into St. Louis soon will be able to do so again.
And St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Amanda St. Amand says it’s not just Mother Roaders looking forward to the bridge’s reopening:
About 10,000 cars and trucks a day were using the McKinley when it was shut down. Granite City officials have said they are expecting as many as 20,000 vehicles a day to use the new and now toll-free McKinley, but Brown said the transportation department had not given her any traffic estimates.
No one is a bigger booster of southwestern Madison County than Brown, and even she acknowledged that when the McKinley closed “it looked like the devil.” But with the entryway park in place, and the bridge set to reopen, she feels certain that her corner of the county is on the way to a comeback. She’s not alone. Business and political leaders in Granite City, Venice and Madison have said the reopening of the bridge should help cause a mini-boom in their local economies.