Students rely on Shippingsport's convenience
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By Dave Msseemmaa
Associate Editor
When IDOT’s Gene Smolinski was living in LaSalle-Peru going to community college in the 60s, he had to drive for classes only to L-P high school, which shared facilities with IVCC’s predecessor L-P-O Junior College. But the last three decades of students from La Salle have relied on Shippingsport Bridge to get to the college.
“Using Shippingsport cuts a lot of time off the drive from school to my dad’s and my boyfriend’s places in La Salle,” says IVCC freshmen Heidi Hewitt.
There were two periods in the last two years when the bridge needed to be closed for repair, rerouting traffic along Illinois Route 351 to the Peru Bridge on Route 251 or the Lincoln Memorial Bridge on I-39. Shippingsport Bridge was closed at the beginning of the Fall 2000 and Fall 1999 semesters.
Sophomore Paul Bankson of LaSalle says the trip to the college, which normally took seven minutes, took an extra five to ten minutes when Shippingsport was closed, and every minute counts when you’re speeding to avoid being late for class.
“Indeed it was out of the way (to use another bridge),” says sophomore Eric Humpage of La Salle. Humpage says he is delayed sometimes by the drawbridge being up when the bridge was open, but he is usually patient with the five-to-ten minute wait.
“Most people who live here their whole lives know enough to allow a few extra minutes if they’re going between La Salle and Oglesby here,” says bridgetender Charlie Pleskovitch. “If not, they know enough not to get pissed off about it.”
Some people go out of their way to avoid the bridge. One student says it’s worth a few extra stoplights to go through Peru and never risk having to wait for a barge. Others view the bridge, which is a little narrower than the Peru Bridge and far narrower than the massive four-lane Lincoln Memorial Bridge, as scary.
When the center span of the Strauss-vertical lift bridge needs to be raised, huge gears that slow the dropping counterweights that raise the span turn, causing the bridge to vibrate.
“Yeah it’s freaky when the bridge goes up cause the whole thing shakes,” said Hewitt.
Despite a few drawbacks to using the drawbridge, it’s a common consensus that when the bridge is taken down it will be missed during the four years or so before the replacement process is complete. Once a higher bridge more similar to the Peru Bridge replaces it, there will be no more getting stuck in a micro-traffic jam waiting for the barge to pass. But there will also be one less excuse for being late to class, no more putting the car in park and taking a walk while waiting for the drawbridge to come back down, and no safe way to do “Chinese fire drills” with such a beautiful view of the Illinois River.
The river provides a natural break from the farms in the surrounding countryside; waiting for the drawbridge provides a momentary break, at least a few minutes, to relax from the busy life of a college student.