Local preservationists are worried that the iconic Centennial Bridge is likely to be demolished as the Illinois and Iowa Departments of Transportation pursue a preferred alternative in a long-term study of the U.S. 67 (Centennial Bridge) Corridor.
The third public meeting on the project is scheduled for Wednesday, May 20, from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Holiday Inn, 226 17th Street, Rock Island. There will be no formal presentation and the public is invited to attend any time during the hours listed.
At the public meeting (previous ones were held in January 2026 and April 2025), attendees will have the opportunity to:
- Compare the potential corridor options (alternatives)
- Learn how each option could affect Rock Island and Davenport
- Ask questions and talk with the project team
- Share your thoughts on the alternatives
The Centennial Bridge has served as a vital connection between Rock Island and Davenport for more than 85 years. Due to aging infrastructure and ongoing maintenance needs, IDOT and Iowa DOT are conducting a corridor study to identify long-term solutions that improve safety, traffic flow, and overall connectivity for the Quad Cities region.
Since the last public meeting, the alternatives carried forward were further refined and evaluated based on several criteria, including purpose and need, design life, environmental and community impacts, temporary and long-term traffic impacts, and cost. Based on this analysis and public input, the potential alternatives have been narrowed to those that best meet the purpose and need while minimizing environmental and community impacts, according to the DOTs.
The project is currently in Phase I, which follows federal guidelines to assess transportation needs, develop and evaluate alternatives, identify and mitigate potential environmental impacts, and gather public input.
The goal is to identify a feasible solution that improves safety, mobility and connectivity while supporting the region’s long-term transportation needs. The Phase I study is expected to conclude in summer 2027.
A 30-member Citizens Advisory Group has received its latest update, after meeting earlier this month with staff from the Illinois and Iowa Departments of Transportation and their consulting firm, Parsons. Of six alternatives that had been under active consideration, the consulting team has moved to eliminate three – including every option that would have kept the existing bridge standing, according to the Rock Island Preservation Society.
The following options have apparently been removed from consideration by the consulting team:
• Rehabilitate the existing bridge, which opened in 1940 as the first four-lane bridge across the Mississippi River.
• Twin bridge built alongside the existing bridge, with rehabilitation of the existing bridge.
• Full reconstruction of the existing bridge superstructure.
Two new construction options are still under consideration:
• A new bridge built west of the existing Centennial Bridge
• A new bridge connecting 11th Street in Rock Island to Marquette Street in Davenport
Both remaining options involve demolishing the iconic, 86-year-old structure that has linked the downtowns of Rock Island and Davenport. If no action is taken to change the direction of this process, the five silver arches that define the Quad Cities skyline will come down, the Preservation Society posted on Facebook.
Cost estimates the RIPS has heard include potentially $74 million to preserve the existing bridge, compared to up to $295 million to demolish and replace the Centennial with a new four-lane bridge.
Mike Kuehn, Illinois DOT program development engineer, said Monday, May 18, there are recommendations “to reduce down the number of alternatives carried forward. I don't want to comment on what those alternatives are until we have that meeting,” he said of Wednesday, May 20.
At the last public meeting Jan. 28, he said over 70% of people who attended were in favor of some sort of reconstruction and relocation of the bridge.
Dave Heller, owner of the Quad Cities River Bandits, opposes demolition of the bridge.
“I feel very strongly the Centennial Bridge is an iconic feature of this community and should be preserved and protected,” he said Friday, May 15. “Even if they built a new bridge, they would be way better off to save the money on demolition, and turn it into an existing bridge that’s people and bike friendly. That would save money, and would significantly improve connectivity between the communities.”
Even if a new bridge would include a bike/walking trail like the I-74 Bridge does, “nobody has said that’s a joyful ride to cross the 74 Bridge,” Heller said. “It’s a very different experience when you have a bridge with no vehicular traffic. Why would we spend significant tax dollars to tear down something that is so beautiful and so iconic?”
“The Centennial Bridge is an iconic feature of the community -- those five arches all lit up, define who we are,” he added, as the bridge is a big selling point for the Davenport baseball stadium, the Bandits’ home, Modern Woodmen Park. “It’s a big part of why Modern Woodmen Park three times in a row was voted best minor-league ball park in the nation.”
Visit Quad Cities CEO Dave Herrell said Friday that the tourism group doesn’t have a formal position on the bridge but has been engaged through serving on the Citizens Advisory Group and will continue to do so. (There also is a Technical Advisory Group, with city representatives, as well as mass transit and railroads working with the states.)
“There are many pros/cons/complex variables to all the alternatives, and we look forward to more input from the community, etc.,” Herrell said by email Friday, May 15. “In any of these potential alternative scenarios, Visit Quad Cities will continue to advocate for ensuring there is viable pedestrian and bike friendly access, accessibility and public safety prioritization, aesthetics that preserve the arches and historical significance of the bridge, compelling lighting to illuminate the bridge, and provide economic development opportunities for both Rock Island and Davenport.”
Anne Kilpatrick, spokesperson for the Quad Cities Chamber, said Friday that the Chamber, Downtown Davenport Partnership and Rock Island Downtown Alliance have each participated in CAG sessions to discuss the future of the Centennial Bridge, “an iconic cultural asset that serves the critical need to connect Downtown Davenport and Downtown Rock Island.”
“While many alternatives have been discussed at these meetings, we are hopeful that the final result will support our community’s vibrancy by meeting our transportation, cultural and commercial needs for many years to come,” she said.
Working to save a symbol
Former Rock Island Mayor Mark Schwiebert wrote a column (published Sunday, May 17 in the QC Times and Dispatch/Argus) on this subject, citing many concerns with demolishing this beloved symbol of the QC area.
“Why cause such a disruption of a long-standing symbol of our Quad Cities being ‘Joined by a River'? Why interfere with travel between Rock Island and Davenport downtowns after so much effort and taxpayer dollars spent upgrading both downtowns over the last several years?” he wrote, noting the DOTs cite the bridge’s age of 85 and that it doesn't meet current standards for state and federal highways, which generally require such a bridge to accommodate 80,000-pound trucks.
“Now an 80,000-pound truck is typically an 18-wheel semi of 70 to 75 feet in length. Yet, with three major interstate highway bridges in the immediate area - including a relatively new $1.5 billion I-74 Bridge just upstream -- how great is the need for another bridge to handle 18-wheelers?” Schwiebert asked.
“Particularly, when one considers the Centennial Bridge primarily handles local traffic; and the turning radius on exit or entry to the Bridge would likely not easily accommodate such long trucks.
“As for the age of the Centennial Bridge, the nearby Government Bridge is 50 years older. Yet with proper maintenance, it is still able to accommodate not only truck and car traffic but even railroad trains,” the column says. “What is almost as concerning as the DOTs’ questionable recommendation that the Centennial Bridge be destroyed, is their refusal to properly maintain it during the projected 4 to 6 years before a new bridge could be started.
"Anyone crossing it can see the extensive rust forming on the silver arches across the lower third of the bridge span. Though at the May 8th CAG meeting, the DOTs did pledge to keep the roadway and understructure in good repair, they said there was no plan to paint any part of it," Schwiebert said. "This is in spite of the fact in 2021, the Illinois DOT announced plans to paint the bridge, only to fail to do so.”
Kuehn of IDOT said regular bridge maintenance is performed every few years, but a $6-million paint job was put on hold.
“Both the Iowa and Illinois bridge engineers both agreed, until we know what the future is of the bridge structure, we would hold on the painting aspect,” he said Monday. “It's not going to cause any long-term deterioration to the structure by deferring it until we have a decision on this. But at this point in time, we're not going to paint the structure until we've determined what the future of the structure is going to be.”
“Throwing $6 million at something up in the air and it's aesthetic in nature only isn't a wise way of spending taxpayer money,” Kuehn said. “And we're not going to do that. We're going to make sure that obviously we keep the bridge in fair condition and we're certainly going to continue to do that. We're going to need that bridge regardless of the alternative that does end up coming with this. Whether we keep it as is, whether we rehab it, whether we do a new alignment. We need that bridge functional for quite a few years yet.”
Why maintain an 86-year-old bridge?
Alan Carmen retired in 2012, as a 32-year city of Rock Island employee (planning and redevelopment administrator), worked as Rock Island Township Supervisor from 2013 to 2021 and now serves as the Rock Island Preservation Commission’s vice chairman and treasurer of RIPS.
He said on May 14 that from the states’ point of view, a renovation of the existing bridge “does not best meet those criteria that they set at the front end. We think from the Preservation Society standpoint, actually also from the city's Preservation Commission, which I'm vice chair of, that the bridge is iconic, that it is important and that it can be made safe, sound, secure and structurally safe and still accommodate additional pedestrian and bike traffic by reopening both sides’ sidewalks and bringing them up to higher caliber and meet the traffic needs for 40-plus years in the future.”
“I think what we're questioning is the tossing out of the renovation of the existing bridge because it doesn't best meet the criteria,” Carmen said. “From their perspective, I think from a public perspective, from a preservation perspective, that the renovation can meet the criteria, but just not as well as they say it ought to. And we maintain a bridge for another 40-plus years.”
The current bridge best meets the needs to boost economic vitality of both downtowns, “which I think essentially a new bridge may not do as well,” he said. “Certainly not the one at the 11th Street and Marquette linkage location.”
Carmen said the state DOTs have been open to ideas and suggestions over the past year.
“I think now they're at the point where understandably they're needing to narrow the options that they're considering in more detail. But again, from the Preservation Society standpoint, we don't think they should eliminate the renovation of existing bridge from the options to consider before they come up with their final quote, preferred alternative, unquote.”
The timetable is to recommend a preferred alternative by late summer and complete the preliminary design by summer 2027, with actual construction not happening until 2030 or 2031, Carmen said.
“Obviously, it's multiple factors, some of which are cost-related, some of which are heritage-related, some of which are intangibles,” he said of considering rehabilitating the existing bridge. “But from on the real world side of things, you can still wind up with a bridge that's renovated, safe, secure, structurally sound, enhanced to some degree because they would be doing some work in the river to make the piers safer and more structurally sound and achieve that while maintaining that historic integrity of the bridge and keeping that iconic look that is such a symbol of the Quad Cities.”
Preservation Commission action in 2024
In a resolution that the Rock Island Preservation Commission unanimously adopted in September 2024, it noted the Centennial Bridge ownership and maintenance responsibilities were transferred from the city to the Illinois and Iowa Departments of Transportation in 2005 following the city’s $11-million investment and two years of improvements modifying the bridge’s approaches to accommodate increased traffic and make many other repairs deemed necessary by IL & IA DOT.
The bridge’s toll booth was removed during the city’s final improvements project, but the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency mandated that the arch over the previous toll booth location was to remain in perpetuity; and the resolution noted the bridge “is an important and iconic visual element recognized throughout the Quad City area and beyond…”
The Centennial Bridge serves as the route for the only bi-state St. Patrick’s Day parade in the nation, other celebratory and athletic events including the Quad Cities Marathon; and Illinois budgeted $6 million to paint the Centennial Bridge in 2021 but postponed this project allowing the bridge to further deteriorate; and Illinois’ deferred maintenance places the Centennial Bridge at risk of further deterioration, weight restrictions and becoming unsightly.
The commission urged the states to hear its “strong concerns that any studies, reports and analyses associated with the Centennial Bridge’s replacement or removal is strongly opposed from the standpoint of the Bridge’s history, engineering significance, iconic place in the Quad Cities geography, and the potential for negative economic impacts…”
And it called for the states to “take reasonable measures to preserve, maintain and enhance the structure including painting (which has been long deferred and is accelerating the Bridge’s deterioration) and other improvements that extend the Bridge’s longevity, usefulness and reinforce its critical place in the Quad Cities.”
“And a number of other people on the Citizens Advisory Committee have expressed that same opinion. That has seemed to been pushed aside,” Carmen said May 14. “They're now moving forward with new construction options.”
“We believe there's still an opportunity to influence it and say renovate versus replace,” Carmen added. “That may be somewhat wishful thinking, but we're not going to take a position other than renovate it at this point.”
On May 1, 2025, he wrote an Illinois DOT studies and plans engineer, concluding that he wants “the existing Centennial Bridge repaired and upgraded based on its historical, economic, engineering and branding impacts on Rock Island and the entire Quad Cities. It must continue to be an iconic and essential asset to the Quad Cities for many generations to come.”
Simply being part of the downtown’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places may not prevent its demolition, Carmen said.
“As with anything, it's matter of interpretation. There's supposed to be that it can't be demolished unless there are no other prudent and feasible solutions,” he said. “I think the IDOT is saying that they have alternatives that are proved and feasible which would allow for the demolition. Others would say that that doesn't really meet that criteria because it shall be maintained because it is on the National Register and that a prudent feasible solution is to maintain it and renovate it and keep it for another 40-plus years. So it's a matter of interpretation and applying a set of standards and one's own perspective.”
Phase I will conclude with a final improvement plan (Preferred Alternative) submitted to the federal government for review and approval to move into the design phase of the project (Phase II).
The DOTs will hold another public meeting in late summer or early fall to announce what the preferred alternative is, Kuehn said. The two states have allocated $300 million (split 50-50) for the project, and construction would not take place until 2031 at the earliest, after the new planned I-80 bridge over the Mississippi is completed, he noted.
Opening in 1940, the Centennial Bridge was originally the first four-lane bridge across the Mississippi River, as the original I-74 bridge between Moline and Bettendorf was two lanes, opening in 1935 (the second twin span opened in late 1959). The Rock Island-Davenport span was named Centennial to honor the city of Rock Island’s centennial in 1941.
At some time, a large clock above the tollbooths was removed. In 1988, the five bridge arches were lighted, making it as visible at night as it is in the daytime.
In 2017, the bridge was officially renamed as the Master Sgt. Stanley Talbot Memorial Bridge, in honor of an Illinois state trooper who died in 2001 -- after injuries sustained from being dragged by a driver who was fleeing a roadside safety checkpoint in downtown Rock Island near the bridge.
The former I-74 bridge was replaced by the new $1.2-billion bridge connecting Bettendorf and Moline (four lanes in each direction), with the first span opening in November 2020, and the second opening in December 2021. It carries over 80,000 vehicles daily; whereas the Centennial now averages about 22,400 vehicle crossings daily.
Impact on German American center
Kirk Marske, executive director of the German American Heritage Center and Museum (at the Davenport foot of the bridge at 2nd and Gaines streets), said they have not been directly involved in discussions about the Centennial, but have been gathering information and voicing opinions at the public forums.
“There are advantages and disadvantages of both alternate options, and I'm not sure the collective advantages and disadvantages of one outweighs the other,” he said by email May 16. The benefits of a new bridge just west of the Centennial include the museum remaining “at the gateway to the city, and an improved bicycle and pedestrian pathway would create a better connection between Davenport and Rock Island. This would bring more foot traffic and bicyclists to our building.”
“But my concern is how the project would impact our building, with road closures during construction of the new bridge and demolition of the old bridge,” Marske wrote. “Also, the existing roadways have our historic building in very close proximity to traffic, which puts us in the crosshairs of wayward traffic. If a new bridge is built west of the current bridge, I'd like to see a buffer between our building and traffic that is at times erratic. A few years back, a wheel came off a vehicle and rolled through our historic front door and into our gift shop. And last August, a car crossed the sidewalk on Gaines and crashed into a retaining block bench, which kept it from hitting our building. Without a buffer, we might see more incidents like those.”
If a new bridge is built using the connection from Rock Island’s 11th Street to Davenport’s Marquette, it “provides a lot of opportunity for growth where the existing bridge is, similar to what you see happening in Moline at the old I-74 Bridge site,” he said. “What that looks like, how it's funded, and whether that is an advantage worthy of choosing that option, I don't know, but it is an opportunity for growth in our area.
“There is some historic symbolism with our location relative to the Centennial Bridge in that the German American Heritage Center and Museum is at the gateway to Davenport,” Marske noted. “The origin of our National Historic Site dates back to the 1860s and for most of the late 19th century it served as a German immigrant hotel.
“Many immigrants arrived in Davenport by passenger rail and steamship, settling in Davenport, throughout Iowa, and in the Midwest,” he said. “So, Davenport was the gateway to their new life in America, and if the Centennial Bridge is relocated down river, we are not positioned as a gateway the same way.”
Kuehn said the existing bike and pedestrian path on Centennial is not safe, among other concerns.
“Riding a bike on there would be dangerous at best. We have safety issues out there. You know, these are very narrow lanes,” he said of vehicle traffic. “There isn't really any place for people to pull off as need be. There's a variety of factors out here that we're looking at and we've identified, but those are just a couple of them. The weight limit, it's been that way since 1940.
“Most state routes or every state route usually has an 80,000-pound load. This one's kind of a unique situation since it was once a toll,” Kuehn said. “But that isn't the determining factor on this by any means.”
As for a design for a potential new bridge, the states would likely propose a similar arched design to the current one, he said.
“Obviously, if we are to replace that structure, we want to pay homage to the existing structure,” Kuehn said. “We fully recognize this is an iconic bridge. You know, it is part of the community. So anything that would replace it would need to pay homage to it. So we want to make sure we did that right.”
All public input is being documented and used to inform the project team’s evaluation of corridor improvements. Comments received by June 3, 2026 will be included in the official meeting record.
Those who are unable to attend the meeting can review materials and submit comments online at www.centennialbridge.com.
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