Island Park bridge fix will cost less than expected

Replacing the north bridge at Island Park in Geneva will cost a lot less than the Geneva Park District expected.

The park board learned this week the low bid for the project came in at $619,091. The district expected to spend at least $844,933.

The work will be done by Illinois Constructors Corp. of Elburn.

“We were pleasantly surprised,” park board President Susan Vander Veen said.

The project will start in June and the park will be closed. Fox River Trail users will be detoured over the railroad bridge at the south end of the park to River Lane, then north to State Street and across the State Street bridge.

The district expects the park to reopen in time for the annual Fox Valley Folk Music and Storytelling Festival on Labor Day weekend.

The 81-year-old Island Park concrete bridge goes over a Fox River channel. It was built by the Wilson Bros. firm of Geneva. The Wilsons studied with architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Parts of the concrete deck and sidewalls have crumbled away. The surface of the deck has been patched in several places, and there is a crack in one of the four piers holding it up.

There are about 100,000 bicycle and pedestrian trips over the bridge each year, according to the park district.

A federal grant of $729,000 is helping to pay for the project.

The park district’s civil engineering consultant will oversee construction. The design of the new bridge has already received approval from Geneva’s Historic Preservation Commission.