Bridgehunter.com | Calumet River I-90 Skyway Bridge

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Chicago Skyway Bridge

Under the Indiana approach

Photo taken by Nathan Morton in February 2007

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Facts

Overview: Through truss bridge over Calumet River on I-90 Skyway in Chicago
Location: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
Status: Open to traffic
History: Built 1958
Design: Through truss
Dimensions: Length of largest span: 649.7 ft.
Total length: 1,299.5 ft.
Deck width: 76.4 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 18.0 ft.
Approximate latitude, longitude: +41.71790, -87.54294 (decimal degrees)
41°43'04" N, 87°32'35" W (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates: 16/454836/4618598 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map: Lake Calumet
Inventory numbers: IL 016-6419 (Illinois bridge number)
BH 15106 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection (as of 09/2011): Deck condition rating: Very Good (8 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 67.0 (out of 100)
Average daily traffic (as of 2011): 42,100

Update Log

September 25, 2012: Updated by Steve Conro: Adjusted GPS, added Photo's
March 4, 2010: Updated by Robert Stephenson: Updated bridge design
November 7, 2008: New photo from Nathan Morton

Sources

Nathan Morton - morton890 [at] yahoo [dot] com
HAER Chicago Skyway - Historic American Engineering Record report on the Skyway
Robert Stephenson - seinfeld99 [at] yahoo [dot] com
Steve Conro - sconro [at] yahoo [dot] com

Comments

Calumet River I-90 Skyway Bridge

Posted November 8, 2008, by J.R. Manning (thekitchenguy [at] sbcglobal [dot] net)

This is an awesome bridge but it is also awful to try to get a decent photo of. I've been trying to figure out a way to safely get photos of this monster for some time now. Bravo on your good start to get it documented!

The Skyway also has some most interesting plate girder structures that provide access and egress to surface streets. The structures reaffirm its construction in the late 1950's. They have all recently had work done on them during the Skyway rebuild project.

The Skyway is referred to as a "Toll Bridge" because the City of Chicago charter does not allow for the construction of toll roads. (The Toll Road Authority is a state operation.) The city IS, however, allowed to build Toll Bridges. The Skyway, then, is a Toll Bridge with 8 miles of approach spans. That's also why most people don't notice that once you're on the Skyway, there are no exits until after you've actually crossed the bridge and paid the toll!