JCHS: I was hoping you would comment. I believe the 85M that will be on the ballot will pass. I did get the mailing that was sent out describing the Lockport Central plans. It is like I said, I think Lockport really needs a second bridge before we build another high school building. I would vote for that tax increase.
Lockport Non-Football Related
- Thread starter MIKEFTB
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It has been remarkable. My former Dentist who luved in the tiny hqnlet if Marley up on Rt 6 is retired now has a Son that attended what is now Lincoln-Way Central in the early 70s when it was the only campus in D210 and she said she remembers when they built the campus in Frankfort.
The original plan wants to start with one class added per year after it's opening until it became a full four year campus but the growth in the area did not materialize as anticipated and so it opened in '77 as a two year campus and as we know continued up until becoming what is now Lincoln Way East sime 40+ years later, and then of course the rest was history with the opening of the other two and that blew up with the unfortunate closing of Lincoln Way North due to financial improprieties.
I'm still stunned by that. But the facility is still there in place and will allow the Lockport freshman students to attend and continue their education through the air how long it takes to fix the situation at Lockport Central.
I still can't believe after they closed Lincoln-Way North and starting shifting students around that they opted to take the kids from a portion of western Mokena and send them all the way down to Lincoln Way West. So in other words they pass Lincoln-Way Central on the way down to West but I guess it was needed in order to facilitate keeping West functional and going. .
I'm not totally up on the D210 boundaries but do some Mokena students and all of Manhattan and the students that reside in southern portions of New Lenox attend West while a majority of the students living in the rest of Mokena and New Lenox proper in and around the older regions attend Central?
Students that were at North from Frankfort Square moved over to East as well as that whole region along Harlem Avenue to the west all the way up north to 183rd Street. Which I believe is unincorporated Tinley Park.
What history!
I’m happy the school is being used for students from Lockport, way better than it sitting there empty.
A new bridge is a Will County project. The estimated cost in 2000 was in the $600 million range. Now, it's in the $1.2 billion range. By the time the County gets around to building the bridge and the rest of the route it will be in the $2 billion range. The best time to do an infrastructure project is always today.
Why don't they just reopen The Division Street bridge off of Rt 53 into Lockport that existed years ago. One time I talked to a retired Bolingbrook Fireman who had been with the department when it was first formed in 1965 and he said they used to transport emergency patients to Silver Cross hospital. I said all the way from Bolingbrook to Silver Cross in Joliet? Yes . How in the world did you get there? We drove as fast as we could down Rt 53 to Division Street turned left abd went over the bridge over the river and canal and into Lockport down Division Street all the way to Briggs St and then South to Rt 6
My next question is why don't you just transport patients to Edward and Naperville? Answer there were no major roads to get there. Everything west of route 53 in Bolingbrook at that time was all woods and... Edward Hospital closed at 9:00 p.m.. so if any patient was transported there at night you had to ring a doorbell and a Night nurse would come and open the door. .
That was the first time I ever knew that a bridge existed on Division going over everything to 53.
The North closing was a tragedy. Glad it’s finally getting used in a positive way. My sons both went to East after the split so they were not involved with LWC other than playing them. They both graduated before West and North were built so they also were able to miss the splits between the 4 schools. I know back when they went to East, Frankfort Square and Mokena went to East until those two schools opened. I saw that a lot of people were upset with the closing of North, and rightly so. I thought it was a little strange that North parents were upset that their kids were having to go to East after the closing. I get it, but when my sons were at East these kids from the Square and Mokena were already going to East so after the closing it felt to me like they were coming back home. 😂
It's still there, you can drive down Division from 53 and see it. Very small swing bridge. Gotta protect the prairie down there. Reopening that bridge (don't think that is even feasible) or replacing it on Division would do a ton of damage to what is the largest section of dolomite prairie left in the state.
Too bad there were some good/great kids in the school.I NEVER want to see any school consolidate let alone close.Thornridge was supposed to close & the kids go to Thornwood & Thornton.The thing that saved them was the fact is that gang members from Thornridge would be sent to schools with rival gang members.Smh
Back in the day there were two separate bridges on Division St. (16th Street) One that went over the Sanitary and Ship Canal and the other one went over the Desplaines river. Actually, a 3rd runs over the I&M canal and is still in service.
The Sanitary and Ship Canal bridge was built around 1905 and was a swing bridge and not a lift bridge. So the structural support sat a little west of the middle of the canal. Every so often when the bridge swung open to allow passing tug boats and barges to go by, it would get hit by the barges causing, sometimes, serious damage and the bridge would be shut down for repairs. This was a very rare occurrence, but did happen.
The bridge aged over the decades it was in use. Repairs became more expensive and eventually it was closed around 1982. It was removed years ago.
The bridge that ran over the Des Plaines river still stands, although it is dilapidated and was closed at the same time the swing bridge was shut down. That bridge was built in 1899 and is a permanent structure. It didn't swing or lift. It was very narrow and you could barely fit two cars through at the same time so most, courteous people, would wait at the other end if you entered the bridge before them. However, there were always a-holes who would see you and still go on the bridge anyway. If that happened each car had to slow way down to make room for the other and without hitting the inside of the bridge on the passenger side.
We lived a block away from Lockport Central high school and every time I had to go to the west side of Joliet I always took those bridges when crossing over the river and canal. It was so convenient and no trucks heavier than pickups were allowed on the bridges because of weight limits. I never used the 9th street bridge (Rt 7) back then. Too crowded, even then.
I will continue to say Lockport desperately needs a second bridge. I have heard the 2B project that was talked about here is a bridge and roads that run from 53 east all the way to a newly created interchange at 355. If true, good luck getting that done. Lots of folks in certain neighborhoods complaining about the route through their neighborhoods. No one on this board will live to see it happen. And I really don't think that is needed.
The idea I have in mind is more in line with a bridge similar to the one in Romeoville on 135th that runs east and west. Very nicely done and it eliminated a swing bridge and RR crossing a person could get stopped at. That bridge is not very long. But it's four lanes and has always been a smooth crossing for me. I used to go over that bridge twice a day going to and coming from work.
If you come to Lockport, don't come through on that bridge after school is out for two hours or more. If you stand on 9th and State streets and look west or east on Rt 7 you have backups for a mile or more in each direction. Going east the backup sometimes goes past the light at Farrell and Rt7.
So, if you are at that light going west on Rt 7 and Farrell you have a backup all the way to Rt 53. That has to be 2 miles. It's 2 lanes both ways, folks. So, going west, if you want to get through the light at 53 you have to go through 8 stoplights AND a RR crossing and deal with bridge traffic before you get there.
Now, if you're coming in from the west on Renwick you could be stopped all the way back at the Prairie Bluff golf course. Then you have to go through all those stoplights and RR crossing as well before you finally get to a 4 lane road after the light on Rt 7 and Farrell going east. AANNND this is IF you can get through smoothly without a train stopping everything in both directions. Freight trains are murder because they are much longer.
Does this sound like a problem to any of you? It is and it's a major problem. And no one is doing anything to fix the problem. Not enough people, anyway. We do have some who are trying. I have to say that much.
The idea I have in mind is more in line with a bridge similar to the one in Romeoville on 135th that runs east and west. Very nicely done and it eliminated a swing bridge and RR crossing a person could get stopped at. That bridge is not very long. But it's four lanes and has always been a smooth crossing for me. I used to go over that bridge twice a day going to and coming from work.
If you come to Lockport, don't come through on that bridge after school is out for two hours or more. If you stand on 9th and State streets and look west or east on Rt 7 you have backups for a mile or more in each direction. Going east the backup sometimes goes past the light at Farrell and Rt7.
So, if you are at that light going west on Rt 7 and Farrell you have a backup all the way to Rt 53. That has to be 2 miles. It's 2 lanes both ways, folks. So, going west, if you want to get through the light at 53 you have to go through 8 stoplights AND a RR crossing and deal with bridge traffic before you get there.
Now, if you're coming in from the west on Renwick you could be stopped all the way back at the Prairie Bluff golf course. Then you have to go through all those stoplights and RR crossing as well before you finally get to a 4 lane road after the light on Rt 7 and Farrell going east. AANNND this is IF you can get through smoothly without a train stopping everything in both directions. Freight trains are murder because they are much longer.
Does this sound like a problem to any of you? It is and it's a major problem. And no one is doing anything to fix the problem. Not enough people, anyway. We do have some who are trying. I have to say that much.
Lived in Lockport all my life and I love it. But man, downtown Lockport (or really all of 9th/159th from Farrell to Renwick/Prairie Bluff) is murder, especially during rush hour
Exactly my point. Other than 5 years away from this area, I have also lived here all my life. Back in the 70s when I got my Driver's license you had far, far fewer vehicles on the road around here and we had two bridges. Population was a little more than 5,000. Crest Hill had fewer than that and Homer was little more than fields with some population. In 1990 Lockport's population was a little over 10,000. Since 2000 the population of Lockport has seen an increase of 66%, not to mention the explosion of population in Crest Hill and Homer. Our population in Lockport is over 26,000 as of the last census of 2020.
But here we are with one bridge trying to handle all that traffic and it is failing. Like I say, we do have some people who are trying. I like the mayor and JCHS is also a good guy who has also lived here for many years.
Speaking of the bridge, it was supposed to run going east all the way to the top of the hill on 9th street where it meets Washington St. This would have taken it over the old GM&O railroad tracks that we all get stopped at when a trail rolls through and the downtown area. But Bruce Cheadle and old man Cornolo had a ton of influence, not to mention business interests downtown. So they used that influence to see that the bridge did not go that way and that is why you have the snag there.
Cheadle was very influential in this town and has a family history here. I used to deliver his daily Tribune when I was a kid to his big house on the southeast corner of Washington and 11th streets. What can I say? The man tipped VERY well. LOL. If you look at old photos of influential families from here there are pics of his family and some of him when he was a young boy.
The stuff I could tell you.
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The Owner of Dubois Fabrics lived in Lockport.My dad worked for him took care of his house while he & his family were on vacation.He had a huge house & a tunnel & cellar underneath that went pretty far
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