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| Rendering of renovated bridge at Lake Shore Drive over Wilson |
Under a bridge at Wilson Avenue and Lake Shore Drive on a cold, windy and rainy Wednesday morning, Transportation for America held a press conference. Why was the conference held outside? To get a feeling of what it’s like to stand under a structurally deficient bridge.
On Wednesday Transportation for America released a report called “The Fix We’re in for: The State of Our Nation’s Busiest Bridges.” The report claims that nearly one in 10 bridges in Chicago is structurally deficient.
“A bridge rated structurally deficient,” said Brian Imus, state director of Illinois Public Interest Research Group, “means that a bridge is in need of a more frequent monitoring and either critical maintenance or replacement.”
In the report, Chicago ranks 11th in numbers of deficient bridges among metropolitan areas with more than two million residents. The city has a total of 481 such bridges, according to the report.
The bridge at Wilson and Lake Shore was built in 1933 and is considered structurally deficient, Imus said. Continue Reading
UU Note: Lake Shore Drive bridges over Lawrence and Wilson are slated for major rehabilitation. Read more here.
Wonderful to see this issue being highlighted - and hopefully something will be done ... before it's too late.
ReplyDeleteHorrible that Schakowsky is using this as part of a political issue.
Had she been so concerned about the structural deficiency of these viaducts, she could have acted when the first stimulus package was released, two years ago - instead of blanketing Evanston with all sorts of lesser needed projects (check out the highly conspicuous crosswalk and signs in front of the Whole Foods, for some context), and/or non-intrastructure projects here in Uptown.