Long Grove hires company to install bridge cover
Long Grove village board members Tuesday night hired a company to install a replacement wooden cover for the historic downtown bridge, which was damaged by a truck a little more than a year ago.
Carmichael Construction Inc. of Marengo was selected to do the work for $166,860. Trustees rejected the idea of spending more for four steel pile supports for the cover.
Trustee Anne Kritzmire said the four steel supports would not have prevented truck damage to the cover.
"Our goal was to try and reduce the number of times we have to write checks ... for redoing the roof when somebody runs into it," Kritzmire said.
Village officials said the cost of the replacement timber cover is expected to be paid through an insurance claim. Some trustees indicated a willingness to explore the possibility of building an overhead obstruction well before the bridge to prevent trucks that are too tall from proceeding and smashing into the cover.
In June, Long Grove trustees approved a $747,903 contract with Alliance Contractors Inc. of Woodstock to handle concrete abutment replacement and painting for the Robert Parker Coffin Road bridge.
Two weeks after landing on the National Register of Historic Places, the one-lane Coffin Road covered bridge was hit by a rented box truck on June 27, 2018. It was closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic for more than two months as a result.
The bridge is closed once again to accommodate construction work on Coffin Road, which has been shut down west of Old McHenry Road for previously scheduled upgrades. A date on when the bridge work will begin was not immediately available.
Long Grove expects to receive a $250,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, along with a possible $76,000 donation from the village's privately operated historical society, to defray the bridge expenses, officials said. The village already has about $297,000 in a special bridge fund.
Constructed in 1906 by the Joliet Bridge and Iron Co., the downtown Long Grove bridge is a rare surviving example of a pin-connected pony truss bridge built for an urban setting, according to documents submitted by for the national landmark process. The cover was added in 1972 to help preserve the bridge and limit traffic from trucks and other heavy vehicles.