Rating:
1 vote

Ford City Drive Overpass

Cook County, Illinois

Photos 

View from south

Photo taken from front driveway of Chicago Fire Department station, which may have located here next to the bridge so that fire trucks could use the bridge to get to the vital Dodge Chicago Plant quickly.

Photo taken by Roger Deschner in September 2018

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)

Enlarge

BH Photo #439362

Map 

Street Views 

Description 

Concrete rigid frame bridge, part of trumpet interchange with Pulaski Road. Built 1944 to serve traffic to Dodge Chicago Plant, which built aircraft engines for World War II. Provided access to Daley College and Ford City Mall.

Deteriorating concrete is spalling onto Pulaski Road, but otherwise bridge was sound when it was demolished in 2020. (Could have been saved with gunite?)

Facts 

Overview
Concrete frame bridge over S. Pulaski Road (Crawford Avenue) on Ford City Drive (W. 77th St., Keller Dr.) in Chicago
Location
Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
Status
Demolition underway
History
Built 1944
Design
Concrete rigid frame
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 83.0 ft.
Total length: 89.8 ft.
Deck width: 47.9 ft.
Recognition
Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
Approximate latitude, longitude
+41.75333, -87.72194   (decimal degrees)
41°45'12" N, 87°43'19" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/439979/4622641 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Englewood
Average daily traffic (as of 2006)
850
Inventory numbers
IL 016-0750 (Illinois bridge number)
BH 15138 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection report (as of January 2018)
Overall condition: Poor
Superstructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 55 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com

Categories 

Built 1944 (121)
Built during 1940s (4,233)
Chicago, Illinois (331)
Concrete balustrade (885)
Cook County, Illinois (490)
Have street view (28,902)
Illinois (4,929)
Lost (28,466)
 Lost 2020 (155)
Lost during 2020s (284)
NR-eligible (4,107)
Owned privately (1,928)
Rigid frame (772)
Span length 75-100 feet (6,651)
Total length 75-100 feet (6,792)

Update Log 

  • December 28, 2020: Updated by Roger Deschner: Photos added of demolition underway
  • December 10, 2018: New Street View added by Dana and Kay Klein
  • December 10, 2018: New photos from Roger Deschner
  • February 18, 2018: New Street View added by Roger Deschner
  • July 30, 2017: Updated by James Baughn: Bridge is doomed
  • June 24, 2016: New Street View added by Frank Hicks

Sources 

Post a comment here

Comments 

Ford City Drive Overpass
Posted December 10, 2018, by Roger Deschner (rogerdeschner [at] gmail [dot] com)

Actually an interesting bridge, even though it carries very little traffic today compared to when it was built in 1944. NR eligible due to association with World War II. Retains very good historical integrity, with very little maintenance having been performed. The roadway Ford City Drive (a.k.a. Keller Drive or 77th Street) is a minefield of bone-jarring potholes, which may be one reason it carries so little traffic. The state report cites a number of statistics about it, some of which like crashes will get worse when this bridge is eventually demolished and replaced with a longer left-turn lane at a stop light. A better solution for this historic structure would be to repair the spalling concrete and fix the potholes. That would improve safety, especially for Daley College students who use it for access to a main parking lot.