Smith Bridge
Facts
- Overview
- Pair of cantilevered through truss bridges over Des Plaines River on I-55 southwest of Joliet in Channahon
- Location
- Will County, Illinois
- Status
- Open to four lanes of traffic
- History
- Built 1957; rehabilitated 1997
- Design
- Cantilevered Warren through truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 485.7 ft.
Total length: 1,405.4 ft.
Deck width: 32.4 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 17.4 ft.
- Also called
- Des Plaines River I-55 Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +41.42222, -88.19408 (decimal degrees)
41°25'20" N, 88°11'39" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/400218/4586316 (zone/easting/northing)
- USGS topographic map
- Channahon
- Inventory numbers
- IL 099-0009 (Illinois bridge number)
IL 099-0008 (Illinois bridge number)
BH 15740 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection (as of 08/2011)
- Deck condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 66.0 (out of 100) - Average daily traffic (as of 2011)
- 26,900
Update Log
- February 21, 2012: New photos from Steve Conro
- March 29, 2011: Updated by Nathan Holth: Corrected Name To Smith Bridge
- January 9, 2006: Corrected location map, thanks John White
Sources
- David Backlin - us71 [at] cox [dot] net
- Nathan Holth
- Steve Conro - sconro [at] yahoo [dot] com
Comments
I remember them redoing the deck of the northbound bridge as a young child in 79. All traffic was diverted to the southbound bridge. Does anyone else remember this? I only see it saying it was rehabilitated in 1997 and not also 1979.
There used to be an even older truss bridge just upstream of the current twin I-55 bridges that once carried US-66 and was still intact in 1961 when this aerial photo was taken.
Of course that bridge was later demolished and doesn't appear on any newer 1970s or later aerial views.
This bridge should be added to category US-66. It was originally built for a new freeway alignment of US 66 in 1957, which subsequently became I-55.
Not sure you have the right bridge. I think the smith bridge structure was over the railway to the south of the des plains river. It was redone/removed in the early to mid seventies i think.
This is the bridge where serial killer John Wayne Gacy disposed of his last four victim's bodies before his capture in 1978.
On this bridge is where notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy dumped his last four victim's bodies into the Des Plaines river according to the book KILLER CLOWN written by Terry Sullivan.
Who was the contractor that built this bridge?
What year was it started?
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/il/will/des-plaines-55/