River Road Bridge over Blackberry Creek

Hutchison Engineering, Inc. was selected by the Kendall County Highway Department to provide Phase I and Phase II preliminary engineering services for the replacement of the bridge carrying River Rd. over Blackberry Creek in Yorkville, IL. The project was located adjacent to a historic dry laid, quarried limestone dam. The east and west abutments of the bridge abutted the dam. When the project was originally envisioned it was anticipated the dam was going to be removed by the US Army Corp of Engineers prior to the bridge replacement project. Therefore, the existing two-span closed abutment structure was scheduled to be replaced with a new three span structure with open abutments. However, in June 2011 a large crack in the west masonry abutment was discovered and the roadway was closed. To expedite replacement of the structure the design was changed to a single span closed abutment structure to allow bridge replacement to proceed independent to the dam removal schedule. As the design of the project neared completion the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) made a decision to take over the dam removal project and expedite their project concurrent to the bridge work. This caused a significant amount of coordination with the IDNR and plan modifications were required to ensure the bridge project could be a stand-alone project while not inhibiting and the dam removal project. The final design of the new structure consisted of a single span steel beam bridge, 99 feet in length and 34 feet in width. Construction of this approximately $1.5 million bridge and dam removal project was completed in 2013.