The Adams Street Bridge opened to traffic on Friday, marking the end of an extensive rehabilitation of one of Chicago’s 37 iconic bascule bridges. The 13-month, $33 million project included the installation of a new electrical control system, improvements to the intersection of Adams Street and Canal Street, restoration of the bridge tender’s houses, the addition of new street lighting and traffic signals, and roadway drainage upgrades.
Vehicles heading west on Adams will once again be able to cross the bridge, which had remained open to pedestrians for all but two months of the project. The opening also means that seven CTA bus routes which were rerouted because of the Adams Street Bridge closure have resumed their regular routes. Those routes are: No. 1 Bronzeville/Union Station, No. 7 Harrison, No. 28 Stony Island, No. 121 Union/Streeterville Express, No. 126 Jackson, No. 151 Sheridan and No. 156 LaSalle.
“The Adams Street Bascule Bridge, and other bridges like it, represent Chicago’s great legacy of investing in infrastructure to build a better future for our residents,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a news release. “We know these types of investments are critical to maintaining our historic infrastructure and keeping Chicago moving forward in the 21st century.”
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