Batavia bridge project winding to close

Almost. Almost.

The Wilson Street bridge in downtown Batavia is just about done.

The project, which began in February 2007 and was supposed to be completed by early spring this year, is in its final push.

Terry Heffron, bridge construction consultant for the city, said it should be wrapped up in three to four weeks.

Construction crews any day now will move the coffer dam from the east side of the Fox River to the west. Then they will build retaining walls on the west bank of the river, backfill the walls, install a precast concrete stairway and clean out the riverbed in the dammed-off area.

They also will build the last of the scenic overlooks on the northwest corner of the bridge. That was delayed when an ice floe damaged the scaffolding for the overlook in mid-February.

Heffron said it was fortunate the ice hit only the scaffolding for the outlook, not the concrete forms for the bridge. If that had happened, the pouring of the north half of the bridge would have been delayed even more.

"It could have been substantially worse," he said.

As it is, the north half wasn't poured until mid-March, almost five months later than originally planned. The south half was poured in fall 2007.

Parking on the bridge may be prohibited to make room for the crane that will place the stairs.

"The real killer this time was the high river levels. It just really dragged the project out a lot," said Heffron, who has served as a consultant on bridge construction projects up and down the Fox Valley, including the rebuilding of the Main Street Bridge in St. Charles 11 years ago.