McKinley Park News - Western Bridge Work to Begin in Fall, Last 18 Months

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: Published April 30, 2024; By Kevin ONeil; Neighborhood News

An illustration from CDOT shows the construction area of the bridge for Western Avenue and Boulevard.

: Published April 30, 2024; By Kevin ONeil; Neighborhood News

Your bone-jarring, shock-damaging drive over the bridge at Western Avenue will come to a smooth end.

Help for professional services businesses

Total reconstruction of the Western Avenue and Boulevard bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal is set to begin late this fall. One bridge will be open for traffic during the entire duration of the project, attendees learned at an April 3, 2024, open house hosted by the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and the office of Chicago's 12th Ward.

Help for dining and entertainment businesses

A graphic from CDOT shows a cutaway of the existing and future traffic patterns for the Western bridge.The $35 million project will take 18 months to complete, with work continuing through two winters, officials said. If all goes according to to schedule, construction should be finished in the summer of 2026.

The open house featured plans and descriptions about how the bridge will be rebuilt in three phases.

Each phase should take about six months to complete:

Stage 1 focuses on reconstruction of Western Boulevard. Traffic will be diverted off the boulevard, and the west side of the bridge will be closed for reconstruction for six months. All traffic will use Western Avenue.
In Stage 2, crews will reconstruct southbound Western Avenue. Western Boulevard will be open, but lanes will be reduced on Western Avenue.
Stage 3 rebuilds the northbound Western Avenue lanes. Western Boulevard will again be open, but lanes will be reduced on Western Avenue.

Stage 1 focuses on reconstruction of Western Boulevard. Traffic will be diverted off the boulevard, and the west side of the bridge will be closed for reconstruction for six months. All traffic will use Western Avenue.

In Stage 2, crews will reconstruct southbound Western Avenue. Western Boulevard will be open, but lanes will be reduced on Western Avenue.

Stage 3 rebuilds the northbound Western Avenue lanes. Western Boulevard will again be open, but lanes will be reduced on Western Avenue.

The bridge has been in operation for over 80 years, first constructed in 1939 and 1940 by the City of Chicago as a fixed-plate girder bridge. A few years later, the bridge was converted to vertically lift to allow U.S. Navy warships to sail from Great Lakes shipyards to the Gulf of Mexico in World War II. The lifts were removed in 1995.

Art Deco Design

The Art Deco styling of the bridge's pylons, railings and lamp posts will be retained and repaired, CDOT wrote in presentation materials. Artist Scipione Del Campo likely designed these decorative elements, CDOT said.

A presentation graphic notes traffic changes and closures for the first phase of the Western bridge reconstruction project.On the avenue bridge, two bike lanes with traffic barriers will be built both northbound and southbound.

Boulevard Safety Improvements

Also as part of this project, Western Avenue will be entirely repaved from 26th to 34th streets.

At the meeting, 12th Ward Chief of Staff Bill Drew noted nearby safety improvements on Western Boulevard. As previously reported here in the McKinley Park News, a safety improvement plan and memorial street signs resulted from a pedestrian death last year at West 36th Street and South Western Boulevard.