Jesus Lopez escaped serious injury Sunday when a leaf of the Michigan Avenue bridge suddenly sprang up, causing a 70-foot crane to come crashing to the street, damaging his car and others and injuring six people.
”We were waiting for the bridge to come down so we could go back to work,” said Lopez, a bridge maintenance worker.
Lopez was parked on the south side of Wacker Drive sitting in the driver`s seat of his Ford Escort when the southeast leaf of the bridge unexpectedly rose and the crane, which was sitting on the bridge, came barreling down. Its cab became wedged in the gap between Wacker Drive and the bridge. The boom, the crane`s movable post, toppled across Wacker Drive. Two traffic-light poles, a crossing gate and a Chicago police patrol car were damaged.
The huge iron ball and hook attached to the end of the cable that runs along the boom bounced off the asphalt of Wacker Drive, leaving about a 4-inch crater and smashing through the rear driver`s side window of Lopez`s car, mangling the door, roof, rear quarter panel and back seat.
”I guess I was just lucky,” Lopez said, patting a silver cross that hung from his neck and trying to catch his breath. ”I`m glad I wasn`t sitting in the back seat.”
The six who were injured were passengers on a CTA bus. All of them were treated for ”bumps and bruises” at area hospitals and released.
As of 10 p.m., the southeast leaf of the bridge was still up. Michigan Avenue from Randolph Street to Ohio Street was closed to vehicle traffic until further notice, according to police.
Police were asking motorists who normally exit southbound Lake Shore Drive at Oak Street to use the North Avenue exit and then proceed southbound on LaSalle or Clark Streets. Upper and Lower Wacker Drive also will be closed between Wabash and Stetson Avenues.
The Michigan Avenue bridge also will be closed to pedestrians.
The No. 3 King Drive, the No. 151 Sheridan, the No. 146 Marine/Michigan Express, and the No. 147 Outer Drive Express will be rerouted until further notice.
City officials met late Sunday with representatives from F.H. Paschen & Associates and Meccor Construction Companies, which were contracted by the city to repair the bridge, to discuss how long repairs would take and how much they would cost.
”The southeast leaf of the Michigan Avenue bridge was the last of four leafs under construction. The bridge, which is out of balance during construction, started to rise and went up into a straight verticle position,” said Jeff Boyle, commissioner of transportation. ”What stopped the bridge from going any further or falling back down was the crane that got wedged in there.”
Boyle said the first step would be to make sure the bridge is stablized in its current vertical position so crews can start removing the crane and repairing the site.
”We have no idea how long it will take,” Boyle said. ”It`s our hope to have a plan for the remedial work by Tuesday.”
The northwest leaf of the bridge was lifted Sunday morning with no problems, Boyle said. It also was lifted once Saturday with no problems.
Police had blocked off both sides of the bridge at about 3 p.m. Sunday while the operator raised the northwest leaf to allow a sailboat to pass through on the Chicago River on its way to Lake Michigan.
As the leaf was being lowered, according to police officer Shirley Ann Brown who was standing on the north side of the bridge, something just snapped.
”It sounded like a spring or something came loose, and it (the southeast leaf) just shot up in the air,” Brown said.
When river traffic has to be let through during the bridge reconstruction, the northwest leaf is usually raised, opening up the north side of the bridge.
The Michigan Avenue bridge is a trunnion bascule-type bridge completed in 1920. In a bridge of this type, the leaves are precisely balanced by stacks of iron or concrete counterweights sunk into a pit below street level.
The weight of this ballast is matched so carefully to that of the leaves that only a low-horsepower motor, about the size of a Volkswagon engine, is needed to raise thousands of tons of steel. Yet the bridge can be raised to its full vertical height in less than a minute.
But Sunday`s raising took more like five seconds, according to witnesses. Police said the accident could have been caused when some unsecured beams fell from the southeast leaf as the northwest leaf was being lowered.
”As far as we know, it didn`t get raised by mistake,” said a worker at bridge control who would not give his name. ”Right now we are investigating to find out what happened. That part of the bridge is suppose to be dead because the contractors are working on that side.”
The bridgetender was required to take a drug-and-alcohol test, which he passed.
Officer Diana Morales, who was controlling traffic on the south side of bridge, where most of the damage was incurred, had just stopped a CTA bus and was advising the driver to take the Wabash Avenue bridge when she said she heard a rumbling noise and got out of the way.
”I was behind the bus directing traffic and trying to get the bus out of the way, but (the driver) said he couldn`t move so I told him to just stay there,” Morales said. ”(The Northwest leaf) was coming down and (the Southeast) side started coming up really fast and I just ran the other way.” The driver of the bus was not injured in the incident but six of the passengers were transported to area hospitals after reportedly being struck by debris that came through open windows.
The bus sustained minor damage, including a cracked door window and several scratches from flying debris.
Bridge maintenance worker Gilbert Valdez, 36, who was parked in his maroon New Yorker behind Lopez`s car when the incident occurred, said it was a freak, albeit scary, accident.
”That part of the bridge is not suppose to move,” Valdez said. ”Maybe the counterweight broke or something, I don`t know. All I know is when the bridge came up, I jumped out of my car, and Jesus was just sitting there like he didn`t see the crane coming.”
Sunday`s incident will further hamper the progress on the $31 million refurbishing project. The bridge was to be completed by November.
Much of the structural steel, electrical and mechanical systems are being replaced and masonry repaired on the bridge.
