A rural road in Morgan County may soon reopen to through traffic after 6 years. Road District 1 has elected to replace the Johnson Road Bridge east of Prentice. The bridge has been closed for 6 years due to rot of the structure. Morgan County Engineer Matt Coultas explained the project at the June 22nd Morgan County Commissioners meeting. “Road District #1 is one of four districts that’s receiving over $45,000 in the first installment of Rebuild Illinois money. Each one of those districts will have to utilize the money on capital type projects. Road District 1 has elected to replace the existing bridge on Johnson Road. The bridge is currently closed, and has been for about 6 years now. With the extra influx of funds, the district advised that it would be a good time to get that road reopened. I have a contract with Hutchison Engineering to finance a design to replace the bridge.”
Coultas says that the Arcadia Road Bridge has now been torn down and that bridge project is also progressing forward. “The Arcadia Road structure in Road District 1 actually has began construction. The road is closed currently beginning June 15th. The structure has been removed and they are moving forward as need be. It’s the same contractor that we used on the Arenzville Road bridge. That bridge is now open to traffic and complete outside of some material investigations and minor details. The engineer has now moved over to the Arcadia Road project, and we are looking forward to seeing that bridge get completed as well.”
Coultas says there may be a couple more bridge projects in the making in the county. “I think the next bridge project is one on Arnold Road in Road District #8. That was the next one we had on the schedule. I think we are another year out prior to get the project started, just because of the nature of how these things work in getting materials and plans completed.”
Morgan County and the City of Jacksonville are also expecting to begin several major road resurfacing projects throughout the remainder of the summer.