I-80 Des Plaines River Bridge

I live in the area, and cross this bridge from time to time. It has certainly been in the news lately, especially after the Lake Shore Drive bridge partial collapse two weeks ago. As bad as its structural condition is, it is perhaps worse functionally - it's a huge bottleneck. It carries 10,000 trucks per day, a reason for both its physical condition, and its traffic congestion.

What is needed is a 4-bridge solution. Build two new bridges on either side of the existing bridges. Divert all traffic to them and totally rehabilitate the old bridges. With no traffic on them, this could be done really well. When done, keep the two new bridges as service/feeder/collector roads to keep the local traffic off the main roadway, and eliminate a couple of suicide merges approaching the bridges. The existing bridges are each already 3 lanes wide, which will be adequate for the mainline once the bad merges and local traffic are diverted to the new service road bridges.

A phased 4-bridge approach like this could both solve the traffic issues here, and preserve the historic but inadequate and crumbling bridges. This would be a win-win, compared to the proposed solution to tear down the existing bridges and replace them with new, wider bridges. This isn't just any road, it's Interstate 80. Complete replacement would be as bad as a failure - several years of a devastating regional and transcontinental traffic nightmare.

This bridge was rated a 6 out of 100 in 2018 which is classified as "intolerable". The redecking in 1998 is starting to show rebar expansion damage on the underside already.

Another problem is extensive rebar expansion damage in the support pylons. The recent "repair" is starting to show cracks already.

IDOT just announced they are stepping up inspections to every 6 months. No replacement funding is in place.

James,

While I agree with you I assume it may be doomed anyway, since the same could be said for all the truss bridges on the Illinois River... most of them were both beautiful and in good condition yet they are being demolished and replaced at a high rate.

This Bridge Over the Des Plaines River is not Doomed Because I Believe this Cool Bridge is still in Good Condition, So How Can this Bridge Be Doomed?

Possibly doomed, as being a chokepoint on a badly overburdened stretch of I-80. The website below outlines preliminary plans to widen the road, which almost certainly will involve replacing this bridge. Also, it has suffered a bit from 50 years of pounding by an endless stream of big trucks.

http://i-80will.com/overview.html