Fed funds help pay for new Wheeling bridge

Tim Merrihew was ready to start his weekend early on Friday.

Before noon, he'd already supervised the installation of a 17,800-pound bridge in Wheeling to replace one that may have been there almost 100 years. The bridge was driven in from Minnesota.

"We were having some serious issues with the old one," said Merrihew, Wheeling's capital projects and design manager. "Parts of it were deteriorating and it wasn't ADA accessible."

The new 48-by-14-foot bridge superstructure over Buffalo Creek was delivered and installed as part of the Hawthorne School Bridge Replacement Program. It crosses Buffalo Creek between the North Suburban Library System facility at 200 West Dundee Road and the Hawthorne Early Childhood School at 200 Glendale Street. Pedestrians and bicyclists from residential areas north and east of the creek use the bridge to get to Wheeling's Village Hall, park district and post office.

The new bridge cost about $232,000 and was funded completely by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money, Merrihew said.

"If it weren't for those funds, this project probably wouldn't have been done until next year at the earliest," he said.

On Friday, it took about one hour to drop the new bridge next to the old bridge, which will be demolished in the spring. Merrihew believes it was originally built for farmers to move equipment between fields.