How To Get Traffic | Red Gate Bridge Starts To Take Shape

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ST. CHARLES " A year ago, there were no road bridges across the Fox River for the 6-mile stretch between downtown South Elgin and downtown St. Charles. By the end of next year, there will be two.

A mere 83 years after it was first proposed in the 1928 comprehensive plan for the city of St. Charles, construction began last week on the Red Gate Bridge. The $30 million span will link the intersection of Route 31 and Red Gate Road on the west side of the river " across the street from St. Charles North High School " to Route 25 on the east side, just north of Unit School District 303's Little Woods Facility.

The bridge is expected to open for traffic in December 2012, almost exactly two years after the more-elaborate " and four times as expensive " Stearns Road bridge and highway extension opened 2.2 miles to the north.

"Stearns Road is a regional bridge, but Red Gate is considered a local bridge. For example, heavy trucks will not be allowed on it," said James Bernahl, who is overseeing the construction as chief of engineering for St. Charles' public works department.

Bernahl said that while the Stearns corridor was designed to connect long-distance traffic all the way from Route 59 on the east to Randall Road on the west, Red Gate's goals are more modest.

First, St. Charles officials hope it will attract drivers who now use the congested Main Street (Route 64) bridge through downtown St. Charles. Second, it will cut as much as five miles from the trip for someone who lives in the Valley View-Red Gate Road area and wants to go somewhere on the other side of the river that is also between St. Charles and Stearns Road.

"A Phase I study estimated the bridge will reduce traffic" through downtown St. Charles by 10 percent, Bernahl said. The study also found that during rush hours, the Main Street Bridge is filled to capacity, despite the presence of two other bridges just south of it in downtown St. Charles.

For cyclists, hikers, too

Suspended beneath the two-lane auto bridge will be a bridge for bikers and hikers. That will connect the Fox River Trail bike/pedestrian path on the river's east bank with the high school campus and with existing trails leading into three subdivisions along Red Gate Road west of Route 31.

The roadway leading to the bridge from Route 31 will run through the middle of Fox River Bluff West Forest Preserve, which consists of paths through heavy forest and is used largely by people walking dogs. However, a pedestrian underpass below the new roadway will allow humans and canines to get from the forest preserve's parking lot to trails on the other side of the road.

Unlike the Stearns project, which brought together state and county agencies using large amounts of federal money, the Red Gate Bridge is being organized and largely paid for by the city of St. Charles. St. Charles officials had little choice after a task force of federal, state and county officials organized by now-former U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert in the early 2000s looked at about a dozen competing ideas for bridges across the Fox and decided that priority for federal funding should go to Stearns Road.

Soon after, the city started taking 7 percent of the real estate taxes it collects and putting that into a savings account for the Red Gate Bridge. That already has accumulated $6.9 million, or about one-fourth of the project's estimated cost. City officials have lined up state and federal grants to cover about half the cost, and they expect to sell bonds to borrow the last fourth, which will be repaid over 20 years by using that same 7 percent of real estate tax receipts.

Critics, and supporters

The project has always been controversial. Officials of the village of Wayne have worried that with an easy way for drivers to get across the river at Red Gate, their village's main east-west street " Army Trail Road, which intersects with Route 25 just a half mile north of the bridge site " could become part of a shortcut to locations farther east.

And people who live in the Fox River Estates subdivision near Little Woods weren't thrilled to see traffic being moved from Route 64 to their quiet neighborhood of dead-end private streets.

More recently, even residents of the subdivisions along Red Gate " one group that city officials say will benefit most from the bridge's convenience " have voiced concerns about safety along the existing section of Red Gate if traffic increases.

But beyond these objections, city officials say they see widespread support for the bridge. An April 2009 survey of 2,200 St. Charles residents found that 74 percent think more bridges are needed, and 65 percent specifically gave thumbs up to the Red Gate project.

When the city council met on the day after Independence Day to consider letting a contract for the first phase of construction, the council chamber was packed with bridge opponents from an organization called the Concerned Coalition for Sensible Spending. They questioned whether the state will be able to come up with the grants it has promised. They also asked whether traffic estimates have taken into consideration the impact of the Stearns bridge also drawing cross-river traffic.

In fact, the city's own annual counts show that traffic across the Main Street Bridge actually peaked in 2009 and has dropped since then, from about 44,000 cars a day in 2009 to 40,000 in 2010 and 39,000 this year. During an open house last May to explain the project, city officials said they think the 2010 drop was caused by the bad economy, while the smaller 2011 drop was caused by the opening of Stearns Road. When the economy improves, traffic will go back up, they said.

Unanimous vote

When it came time to vote on the proposed contract at that crowded July 5 meeting, the aldermen voted unanimously to hire Herlihy Mid-Continent contractors to do the site preparation work at a cost of about $1.65 million. That was almost a $1 million cheaper than engineers had predicted " probably, Bernahl says, because the nationwide slump in construction has made bidding for such contracts very competitive.

So far, Herlihy and its subcontractors have been working mainly to cut down trees in the yard adjacent to Little Woods School. When that is finished in about two weeks, Bernahl said, the tree-removal crew will move to the forest preserve on the west side of the river, and earth-moving machines will begin reshaping and filling in the ground on the east side to prepare the way for the bridge approaches.

The tree-cutting and earth-moving on both sides of the river should be finished by about November, Bernahl said. Meanwhile, a Chicago engineering firm also hired on July 5 will be drafting final plans for the bridge construction.

In December, the city council is expected to pick a contractor to do the actual bridge and roadway construction. That work will begin in spring 2012, with the bridge opening to traffic in about December 2012.

More details about the plan and weekly construction updates are available at www.redgatebridge.org.