Members Seek Special Meeting on Will County Bridge Replacements

Will County Board | September 17, 2026

Article Summary: Two Will County Board members used closing comments on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, to push for a special board meeting on aging bridges across the Des Plaines River corridor, with Member Mark V. Revis preparing to circulate a letter and Member David G. Oxley warning that a Lockport bridge slated for removal in two years would leave emergency vehicles without a crossing.

Bridge Infrastructure Key Points:

• Revis said he will ask members to sign a letter calling a special meeting devoted to the county’s bridge situation, crediting County Clerk Annette Parker — a former board member — with first raising the issue with him.
• Oxley put the scope of the work at $700 million and said it affects Romeoville, Lockport, Crest Hill and Joliet.
• Oxley said the Ninth Street Bridge in Lockport is scheduled for removal in two years, with no alternate route for emergency vehicles.
• Both members said the issue has been discussed at the Executive Committee; no resolution was on the Sept. 17 agenda.

WILL COUNTY — Will County’s river crossings drew a bipartisan push for board attention on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, with two members asking colleagues to set aside an hour for a special meeting on bridges they say are deteriorating faster than the county’s planning for them.

Revis said the issue was brought to him when he first joined the board by a then-member who now serves as county clerk. “When I first joined the board, then county board member Parker brought up a very important policy issue to me, and it’s a big problem impacting our residents — and that’s the bridge situation with the Ninth Street Bridge,” he said. “She was very generous in spending her time explaining the backstory and the history on the issue.”

Revis said he intends to circulate a letter. “In the next few weeks I will be asking everybody to sign on to a letter for a special meeting to where we could talk about the bridge situation in Will County,” he said — “not only in Joliet, but the other areas across really the center part of the county with the Des Plaines River running through it.”

He acknowledged the timing is awkward. “I know we have a lot of work to do with the budget season coming up, but I feel like a quick, one-hour meeting to talk about the bridge situation in Joliet would be very helpful for our board and the municipalities, villages and cities that are in Will County.” He added: “I think us as a county board need to take a little bit of leadership on this matter so we could get a solution that works for all residents in Will County.”

Oxley backed the idea and said the discussion should be regional. “Mr. Revis brought up a very important thing — this bridge. And at executive we talked about it, and we need to look forward to that,” he said. “I like the thoughts of maybe make this a regional thing, because it affects Romeoville, Lockport, Crest Hill, Joliet, the whole thing.”

Oxley then supplied the only cost figure offered on the subject. “Yes, it’s a $700 million project, but it’s something that’s been talked around, kicked down the street for a lot of years,” he said. “Was something we need to move at, because in two years they’re going to take out the 9th Street Bridge in Lockport. Emergency vehicles have no way to go.”

Neither member identified a sponsoring agency, a funding source or a construction timeline, and no resolution concerning bridges appeared on the Sept. 17 agenda. The $700 million figure is Oxley’s and was not attributed to a study, estimate or engineering document during the meeting.

The board did act on one bridge item earlier in the meeting, as part of the Public Works & Transportation Committee’s consent agenda: Resolution 26-291 / 26-5348, granting county aid in construction of a bridge over Fiddyment Creek on MacGregor Road, as petitioned by the Lockport Township Road District, in County Board District 5. No cost figure for that project was read on the floor.

The remarks followed a meeting in which members repeatedly returned to competing capital demands — including an $800,000 transfer into a capital improvement fund that staff said was being depleted, and a space-needs study Ortiz said had produced options costing more than $250 million.

The 9th Street Bridge also serves as the access point for the Ducere LLC petroleum barge terminal site in Lockport Township, whose special use permits the board extended earlier in the same meeting.