how about the western Ave. bridge. The concrete has been crumbling to gravel for years. Its live driving over rocks.

Only CDOT's filing with the Coast Guard. There are technical drawings at the end of the PDF... new bridge will be a fixed bridge, with haunched steel girders. Much like the Halsted viaduct at Kinzie. No magic whatsoever. It will have space for a buffered bike lane and four traffic lanes.

Based on the drawing, it looks like the tight corners of the riverwalk inside the bridge anchorage will be eliminated (along with any semblance of history).

http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/bridg...go%20River.pdf

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/1629/halsted.jpg

Since I can't let my unused I-Go hours be wasted I'm planning to do a 3 hour drive around the city exploring places I don't normally see often. I'm definitely putting the Lower Wacker trip on my list.

Rode on the Dearborn Cycle track today. It's still in demo phase to be sure motorists can adjust to new signals and turn lanes and pedestrians know what to expect before stepping out into the street. The construction barricades will remain for a bit to keep cyclists from going all tour-de-france on it when people haven't quite figured it out yet. But man, the feeling of safety is way better. I'm no longer scared a car door will fling out in front of me. No more impatient motorists when I encroach the left lane. The new lanes are way better commuting experience.

Even though I like the look of that old bridge and of course the bridge house...the Chicago Ave bridge is really awful how they funnel that traffic over it. It's very dangerous for cyclists. And even if I could hop up and ride on the sidewalk over the bridge there's freakin stairs...STAIRS!!! on the East side of it. Guess you're screwed if you're in a wheelchair.

The two warehouses and bridge form a really awesome ensemble. It would suck to lose that. Maybe they should reinstate the Erie Bridge and redistribute some traffic?

I don't understand why Chicago Ave is so wide. It doesn't even connect to the Kennedy

It used to be a major streetcar route, and when that whole area was mostly warehouses, you needed room for all the trucks that went in and out, too. I think the real question is why was the bridge every built so small.

I'd love to see a really wide bridge there with the sidewalk becoming an arcade on both sides (like the east end of Congress) carved out of the buildings so that BRT (or maybe even trams) could easy route over the bridge without too much traffic impact.

I also agree that re-establishing a bridge at Erie would be ideal, although those Kingsbury residents near Ward/Erie Park would scream bloody murder about the traffic now. Yet another piece of evidence of just how piss-poor Chicago is at overall planning.

I will miss the current riverwalk under the bridge - it really adds character to the area down there.

Ah yes, you are right. I've forgotten about its past. BTW, you can see streetcar tracks poking through Chicago Ave on occasion.

December 14, 2012
 

A happy story on a sad weekend.

"This afternoon when Mayor Rahm Emanuel opened the new two-way protected bicycle lanes on Dearborn Street, it was the exclamation point to a memorable year of bike improvements."

Grid Chicago, by John Greenfield

More

"De-crowding" started today.

Regarding river crossings around Chicago Ave, have people noticed that the River North spur of the Kennedy has a rather outsized bridge -- it is a truss that almost looks double-decked, like the LSD bridge or the Michigan/DuSable Bridge. I assume it's just for strength and that there isn't really a lower level for vehicles (there might be for service workers), but does anyone know for sure? If it were capable of 2 levels, you could have an Ontario Street crossing and with a little work could tie it right into Halsted and via Erie Street right into Milwaukee Ave.

No, there's no lower level at Ohio St. The truss isn't actually any deeper than the other ones, really - but it's a deck truss, so no members extend above the bridge deck. The other river bridges are pony trusses, so they appear to be skinnier - the members rise above the bridge deck and the deck visually slices them in half.

If you look closely at the double-deck LSD and Michigan bridges, you'll see that the steel sections are very beefy relative to the distance they span, much moreso than the Ohio and Congress bridges. This is because the double-decker bridges were designed to carry twice the load.

Retrofitting the bridge to carry a lower level would be significant; you'd have to somehow thread a roadway through the bridge anchorages, exactly where the counterweights (solid, thousand-ton concrete blocks) and hinge mechanisms are located. Then you'd have to beef up the bridge members to carry the extra load and remove the diagonal sway bracing that crosses through the space inside the truss.

obligatory cool construction image

fun fact: the bridge leaves are staggered, so when it's raised, the bridge looks like this.

http://www.historicbridges.org/truss...e_42708_10.jpg
source

For Big Wheels,™ maybe. The trusses are only about six feet deep at the end of the leaves.

http://buffetoblog.files.wordpress.c...l-tricycle.jpg

Source

^ In that case, how about a bikeway for recumbent bicycles!

Why wouldn't they have just built it in the "pony" configuration - which would have resulted in a slightly lower deck elevation, and therefore permitted approach ramps without such great inclines?

I thought this was a nice look at the CTA from long ago:

Keeping Everyone in the Loop: 50 Years of Chicago "L" Graphics

I love the art of the 20's, 30's, and 40's! (oh how I wish the Humboldt Park branch still existed!)

I can't say for sure. Maybe the designers realized what an awesome view would eventually take shape there, and didn't want to block it with steel girders? They probably tried to make the clearance pretty damn high so that openings would be infrequent (far more industrial traffic in the 50s). Remember that this was intended to form part of a full expressway loop around the Loop, and it would have connected to Lake Shore Drive somehow. Any stoplights or operable bridges would have been frowned upon.

The Dan Ryan bridge over the South Branch was also planned to be operable, but it was eventually moved even higher so that sailing ships could pass beneath it freely.

Remember that there are railroads on both banks, so the Ohio-Ontario Feeder had to climb up to 30 feet above the river in any case.

I don't think any Chicago River bridge has been built with pony trusses since the 1940s.

The Dan Ryan bridge is a compromise. Remembering World War II, when the Western canal bridges had to be refitted as lift bridges, the Defense Department wanted the expressway bridge to be a full 180 feet, like the Skyway, or a draw span. FHWA and the city objected, and a compromise 70-foot clearance was approved.

^ 180 feet?? What were they thinking, what on earth could be that tall (that might need to traverse our measly inland canal of a river)? Were they going to use barges to hide the Statue of Liberty in Peoria during wartime?

Sorry; I'm traveling and typed from memory. I should have said 125 feet.

Storytime, kids: In the 1930s, several of the bridges over the Sanitary & Ship Canal were built as drawbridges, but motors were not installed because traffic was restricted to barges. In the late 1930s, side-by-side bridges for Western Avenue and Western Boulevard were built as fixed spans. But almost immediately, drumbeats of war were heard from Europe, and about 1941 the War Department paid for towers and lift machinery to be installed on those bridges, and for motors, etc., for Cicero and the other bridges. They were concerned that Great Lakes shipbuilders be able to participate in the defense/war effort. As it happens, I'm told the bridges were only lifted once for real, and the subs built in Manitowoc had too deep a draft and had to go through in floating drydocks.

http://i.imgur.com/Kz5Fx.jpg
Source

http://i.imgur.com/XBpVf.jpg

Anyway, memories of this issue were not so distant in 1958, when the decision was made about the clearance the new Dan Ryan bridge would have.

How many people does it take to re-deck a platform? (12 if you count the other 3 just out of frame) I am not a carpenter, but it seems like it would be hard to do anything very efficiently with that many people in such a small area.

Anyone who wants to get weekly and 3-day passes before the price hike better get them now. Places all over are running out. I got the last of the 3-day passes at Walgreens. Don't know how fast businesses will keep up with restocking before Jan 14

Are any of the bridges on the Sanitary Canal typically operating? I know most of the barges and tugs can get beneath them without problems. The rail lift and swing bridges seems to operate regularly,

No, the "Eight-Track Bridge" at Campbell Avenue, frozen in the down position at 17 feet vertical clearance, sets the clearance for the entire Sanitary & Ship Canal. Nothing between Damen Ave. and Joliet still opens.

I don't think any swing bridges are still operable anywhere in the Chicago area, except the one just south of Armitage on the North Branch.

Here's a better question... How many years does it take to move on from using wood decking on platforms? You cannot tell me that radiant heated precast architectural (torched surface) concrete could not have been used on the Brown rehab. The CTA really cheapened out... this, the godawful galvanized railings...

The new Red Line stations have concrete platforms, because the embankment could bear the weight. The Brown Line stations would have needed costly strengthening work on the steel structure to install concrete. They did this at Morgan but that was expensive.

Well I do know the lift bridge at Ping Tom park operates. I've gone over there a few times to photograph it in action.

So I take it the rail swing bridge at kedzie no longer works.

Yes, the Amtrak bridge (my personal favorite) is lifted several times a day in summer. It's even lower than the Eight-Track because they didn't want grades on the approach to Union Station, so it has to be lifted even for large cabin cruisers and gravel barges. It was designed to someday be set to a higher grade (and to have a twin), but that never happened.

Preferred Design for the Circle Interchange

Aesthetic and Landscape treatments have yet to be decided, but the initial concepts are pretty fussy and not very promising. This is the stuff they should be considering.

There's also a concept to triple the width of the Peoria bridge to make a proper landscape connection between UIC and the West Loop, with a signature CTA headhouse.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8095/8...aefbdfb5_b.jpg

Today
Wells Bridge
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...e7fc61c13c.jpg

Clark/Division Red Line Renovation
http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...45a35acaa4.jpg

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...440a50c8a7.jpg

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...54ae07b3ae.jpg

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...6b5ccf5d67.jpg

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...206f1101a5.jpg

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...42873b7672.jpg

http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/t...49e0f86064.jpg

2nd Congressional District Candidates Debate
 

Please attend if you can the 2nd Congressional District Candidates Debate:
Wednesday January 30, 2013 4:30pm to 9:00pm
Rich Central High School 3600 203rd St.
Olympia Fields, IL 60461

http://www.facebook.com/events/487324314642723/?ref=22

I will be there to submit ideas for Jobs, and Economic Development,
and to distribute CTA Gray Line information and literature; there may
also be coverage by Fox32 TV:

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/17...-electric-line

Mike Payne

Thats a shame I think IL should invest in a waterway network between Joilet and Chicago it would give new options for shipping along with opening up Chicago to the Gulf Trade Markets.

It would be cool, but with calls to close all connections between Lake Michigan and the rivers due to invasive fish species, I don't think anyone wants to invest in something that may be forcibly shut down.

I will be attending, and distributing at this Event also -- please attend if you
can: http://www.activetrans.org/TransitSummit2013

This is already better served by rail with the exception of bulk commodities shipped by barge. That money would be better spent completing CREATE.

Streetsblog Chicago has an article on the first BRT meetings. Highlights:

CREATE Update
 

CREATE Project Status Maps have been updated as of Jan 18,2013

What is noticeable is the number of completed projects and also Phase III -Under Construction projects.

The map does indicate that the P1 - Englewood flyover is in the construction phase.

Below is another article on CREATE in Progressive Railroading Mag.

CREATE update: Grade crossing upgrades, separations and closures

Communication and Signal

By Walter Weart

For freight and passenger railroads, making the safety grade at crossings requires a little technology, a lot of partnering, more education and more closures. In the Chicago metropolitan area, railroads and a host of partners are working in a big way to improve crossing safety (see "Grade crossing safety: Freight and passenger railroads take a multi-pronged approach"). The $3.2 billion Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency (CREATE) program, which started in 2003, includes crossing upgrades, grade separations (25 in all) and closures.

Two recently completed projects include the $60 million Belmont Road grade separation in Downers Grove, Ill., which eliminated an intersection between the four-lane road and three BNSF Railway Co. tracks used by 150 Amtrak, Metra and BNSF trains daily; and the $165 million 115th & Torrence rail bridge replacement grade separation of the intersection of 130th Street and Torrence Avenue, says Jeff Sriver, CREATE project manager for the Chicago Department of Transportation.
....
The goal of the 130th and Torrence grade separation project is to eliminate at-grade crossings on two Norfolk Southern Railway mainlines by lowering the profile of 130th Street and Torrence Avenue to fit under two new bridges that will carry the tracks and also be used by the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad. In addition, an existing bridge carrying two Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District/South Shore Line commuter-rail tracks over the NS tracks and Torrence Avenue will be rebuilt on a new alignment immediately south of the current structure.

The 394-foot-long bridge is the largest truss bridge ever built off site and moved into place fully assembled, CREATE officials say. The project is scheduled for an April 2015 completion.

"Two other notable crossing projects involved the Ashland and Damon crossing, which experiences over 50,000 vehicles a day, and a BNSF crossing on Blue Island Avenue, which used a tub-type crossing," says CREATE Coordinating Planner Joe Alonzo.

Speaking of BNSF: The Class I has about 50 tub crossings in the Chicago area, 10 of which were installed in 2012, a BNSF spokesperson says. BNSF officials believe tub crossings work well in areas where there is high vehicular traffic and low train speeds. Unlike conventional concrete panels that fit on top of ties, tub crossings don’t sit on ties. The rails are attached directly to the precast concrete modules, which eliminate the use of ties and ballast. CREATE officials note that there's been less of a need for maintenance with the tub crossings currently place.

CREATE officials also plan to use variable message signs to alert drivers "when a particular Belt Railway crossing is blocked, which occurs frequently and creates significant delays," says Chicago DOT Deputy Director David Zavattero. The signs are designed to alert drivers that gates are down and for how long. The crossing, which is monitored on a Belt Railway Co. of Chicago line, is located at 55th Street, just west of 55th and Central, at the northwest corner of Midway Airport.

The signs — which ultimately could be tied into the railroad's crossing control system to provide additional information — will be placed along the Stevenson Expressway and Cicero Avenue during the next 18 months. If they prove to be successful, the signs could be installed in other locations, Zavattero says.

Walter Weart is a Denver-based free-lance writer. Email comments or questions to prograil@tradepress.com.

Yeah, the bridge at 130th and Torrence is now linked into the South Shore line and the previous viaduct is being dismantled.

http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...73109706_n.jpg

src

Wow that's blue!

^ How about we do this for much more of our public infrastructure? Please? Not all, but occasionally?

In the US or what? I'm sure there is stiff competition from around the world, and $1tr infrastructure investment in China would be tough to keep track of, though 120 meters isn't shabby at all.

Edit - perusing web links reveals someone is suggesting this size was exceeded by a foreign project - a 640-foot truss for the Quebec Cantilever Bridge.

CREATE has a Facebook page?!?! Can all major construction projects from now on have a Facebook page? Not that I care for Facebook, but when you ask for a dedicated website or webpage you usually end up with six-month stretches with zero updates - I recall having to rely on the Tribune and Sun Times for most Wacker rebuild updates and timetables. It would be quite nice to have regular updates like this for, say, OMP, whether cargo area and runways or just the consolidated car rental facility and surrounding roadway realignment.

Facebook dramatically lowers the barriers to frequent updating, especially for non web-savvy people. I doubt CREATE has the budget to hire a dedicated web person; they probably use one of IDOT or CMAP's people - when they remember to make an update, get materials together, send the email, make a phone call, etc. With Facebook, literally anyone can make an update in a few seconds. Its's also interactive, so (for example) Walsh Construction could post a cool photo of the 130th/Torrence project, shot by a Walsh employee, to the CREATE page.

CTA and CDOT also post quite a bit of content to social media now; CTA in particular has always (historically) been meticulous about photographing capital improvements and now both old and new photos are posted on Flickr for all to see.

Looks like CTA ridership was up again in 2012. 2.4% growth in ridership.

http://www.transitchicago.com/assets...ts/2012-12.pdf

WBEZ is reporting that the "preferred" design for the Ashland/Western BRT is median lanes on Ashland, coupled with a lane reduction, between Archer and Milwaukee. Expansions to the north or south, and anything on Western, would need to wait until later.

As I suspected awhile ago, this is basically a Circle Line replacement, connecting core CTA lines circumferentially and forming an express link to the Illinois Medical Center. Since it's a short segment, I imagine CTA will reinstate the X9 and run it using the new busway.

And that's using calendar-adjusted numbers - non-adjusted is up almost 2.6%. Must not have been a lot of riders on Feb 29.

It's a little worrisome that December was down but overall seems like good news. Dan Ryan ridership next year will obviously be decimated by the reconstruction, which will probably bull the system total numbers below 2012 even if they manage to track all the additional bus and shuttle riders, but hopefully by 2014 it will immediately exceed 2012 due to the must faster travel times. 2013 should have higher ridership on all the other lines, though. 2014 I expect to be a banner year.

I was looking at that. I think the December there was a bunch of construction on the north red line. Also, weren't some bus routes eliminated in December? Finally, I imagine the way the holidays played this year caused less weekly ridership during the last week of the year.

I wouldn't expect a return of the X9. First, I think that was paid for with demonstration project money and I don't know that it ever served much of a purpose north or south of the proposed BRT corridor. Second, the median BRT will require special buses with offside doors, so it would be tricky to have equipment that runs in normal and BRT service.

Oh, that's true, and probably explains nearly the entire effect. Probably 40% of my office was out during the week of Christmas, and I'm sure other offices had similar vacation effects. Those holidays will be mid-week this year and 2014, too, so 2015 and 2016 will probably show "growth" in December for the inverse reason.

That was my thought. My office probably only had 40% in the office and nearly everyone in my office lives in Chicago. I was out for 12/24-31.

So you think it will be a closed system, then? Rapid buses will only run Division-Archer? I guess there's a turnaround at the Orange Line station. Still, thus confers virtually no benefit to North or South Siders.

:wtf:

I hope this does not mean the Circle line will no longer be considered in the future. Missing out on a connection to the Red/Brown/Purple at North and Clybourn is a huge blow to potential ridership and system efficiency.


I am however, very excited that the center running BRT with full street parking seems to have won favor with the city. I only wonder how nasty traffic will be where Ashland transitions from 2 lanes to 1.

Is WBEZ still claiming it? I recall reading it with an update saying that no decision’s been made yet (though it’s around what I’d expect).

There are buses which can board from either side—I believe Eugene’s EmX uses them.