Bridges during the 2006-2009 Tri-State Rebuild/Widen

[I-39]

I can't believe how much the Tollway cut corners on the bridges during the North and South Tri-State rebuild and widen projects from 2006-2009? What did they do?

1. Most of the crossroad bridges were not rebuilt, they simply squeezed 4 lanes under the existing structures and eliminated the shoulder.

2. Most of the Mainline bridges were simply redecked, with the original structure rehabbed and left in place.

I hope they realize eventually those are going to have to be replaced. It almost makes me wonder whether or not they deliberately did that in order to keep perpetual construction going on the Tri-State.

On the Addams rebuild (I-90), they are fully replacing most of the crossroad and mainline bridges, so why didn't they do that here?

[quickshade]

I know some of the I90 bridges were past EOL and that some of the rebuilds on the I90 bridges could not be done because of the way the existing bridges were built and how the road underneath ran. I'd be interested to see if there is any reason behind this but I would venture to guess cost and where the money came from.

[roadman65]

The Garden State Parkway was king on that one.  They used the original shoulders for the added lanes on many structures in Monmouth County, and in Ocean County a great long segment that needed extra lanes in general did not even add pavement at all!  They simply restriped the shoulder as another lane and until people starting complaining about the need for 55 mph to exist due to lack of any shoulder, the NJTA recently widened the road to include full shoulders.

Just like the Parkway was trying to do it cheap, maybe they did the same in Chicagoland as well!

[JREwing78]

On the Addams rebuild (I-90), they are fully replacing most of the crossroad and mainline bridges, so why didn't they do that here?

They didn't do so immediately. The widening over the 2013 and 2014 constructions seasons left a lot of the original overpasses in place. Only this year did they go back to (most) of them and work to replace them.

I agree that widening the highway without replacing the overpasses is poor planning, and I'm amazed they were allowed to do that on an interstate highway. OTOH, it's better than the alternative (3 lanes instead of 4), and it's far from the most substandard feature on Chicago-area freeways.

[I-39]

On the Addams rebuild (I-90), they are fully replacing most of the crossroad and mainline bridges, so why didn't they do that here?

They didn't do so immediately. The widening over the 2013 and 2014 constructions seasons left a lot of the original overpasses in place. Only this year did they go back to (most) of them and work to replace them.

I agree that widening the highway without replacing the overpasses is poor planning, and I'm amazed they were allowed to do that on an interstate highway. OTOH, it's better than the alternative (3 lanes instead of 4), and it's far from the most substandard feature on Chicago-area freeways.

But they were always planning on replacing the overpasses on I-90 so they didn't modify the mainline road to fit under the existing overpasses (i.e narrow the shoulders down to almost nothing). Most of the overpasses were replaced in 2013-2014, the rest will be finished this year and in 2016-2017. They couldn't do them all at once because of the need for detour routes.

When all said and done, the only overpass that will not have been replaced between Rockford and Elgin is Randall Road (and the railroad bridge in Belvidere). Also, I believe all of the mainline bridges were fully reconstructed, not simply rehabbed and widened.

If you're going to do a once in a 50 year reconstruction, you might as well replace the bridges. They'll need to be replaced at some point. It'll be interesting to see what they do when the Tollway reconstructs the Central Tri-State between 95th and Balmoral.

[ChiMilNet]

I can't believe how much the Tollway cut corners on the bridges during the North and South Tri-State rebuild and widen projects from 2006-2009? What did they do?

1. Most of the crossroad bridges were not rebuilt, they simply squeezed 4 lanes under the existing structures and eliminated the shoulder.

2. Most of the Mainline bridges were simply redecked, with the original structure rehabbed and left in place.

I hope they realize eventually those are going to have to be replaced. It almost makes me wonder whether or not they deliberately did that in order to keep perpetual construction going on the Tri-State.

On the Addams rebuild (I-90), they are fully replacing most of the crossroad and mainline bridges, so why didn't they do that here?

Hopefully, if/when they get to those bridges, they will also go ahead and improve/expand some of the existing interchanges to be full interchanges. For example, Touhy Avenue, Golf Road, and IL Route 176 just to name a few.