Railmageddon with cool bridge replacement

**wolverine** · March-01-13, 11:15 PM

If you are a transit and bridge geek, it might be worth checking out the Wells Street bridge reconstruction next time you're in Chicago. For commuters it's a nightmare as the Chicago Transit System trains have been in the midst of major overall. Ever said "why don't they just do all the construction at once and get it over with?" Well, why not! Technically it saves taxpayer money. But people will have to put up no rail service and possibly spend $40-100 more for 1 week to avoid the situation. In the end, the cost savings for the city won. But this painful bridge surgery will be over soon.

Below, Wells street bridge in its final summer at 90 years old.

The historic double decked bridge has outlived its useful life and must be demolished. However, it will be replaced and look almost exactly like it did.

To prove it, sections can be viewed side by side. And during reconstruction [[at times) trains will be able to run over it when newly installed sections are connected with the old. The photo below illustrates this:

Please the photographer's original photo + more here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52114174@N04/8505474400/

They gray area is brand new, the red portion is old and will be replaced. The new sections are lifted into place, and then trains are allowed to pass over. Then they shut off service, remove another section, lifte a new one into place and then allow trains to pass over again.

I don't think people will really be able to tell the difference between the historic bridge and the new one. As you can see the 90 year old pieces connect perfectly with the 90 day old ones. After construction is done, I think the new bridge is worthy of landmark status.

Total cost of the bridge reconstruction is $41 million.

**canuck** · March-03-13, 09:22 AM

Fantastic wolverine! Thanks again for your input on Chicago do's and redo's. In this case it really is nice to see that folks in charge kept the original design in their rebuild of the structural elements.

**MikeM** · March-03-13, 09:37 AM

Part of the CREATE project?

http://www.createprogram.org/projects.htm

**wolverine** · March-05-13, 01:32 AM

Originally Posted by MikeM

Part of the CREATE project?

http://www.createprogram.org/projects.htm

It actually wasn't under CREATE, but this even more impressive monster bridge move was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx0-M...e=results_main

**wolverine** · May-19-13, 06:38 PM

View of the mostly complete bridge. Trains are running across it with normal service. It's still closed to cars and pedestrians, but hopefully it will be open early this summer. It does open and close for boats at the moment.

In other news, the Red Line South Side will be shut down for a complete rebuild. Sox to 95th will be closed.
http://www.suntimes.com/20211901-761...-shutdown.html

The project will cost $425 million and the project scope is 10 miles of affected track. In the US, it is the larget construction related transit disruption in two decades. Riders are expected to take provided shuttles, the green line or Metra Rail to reach downtown as alternatives.