Weekend riders of the Chicago Transit Authority’s Brown Line will be diverted to bus shuttles downtown as construction crews dismantle a 77-year-old section of elevated structure spanning Wacker Drive at Wells Street and install a 425-ton replacement span, officials said Tuesday.
For construction fans fascinated by such heavy work, the city will install seating near the site to allow them to take in the action, said Transportation Commissioner Miguel d’Escoto.
“We are going to be putting up bleachers on Friday, the famous bleachers from last year, so the public can come down and watch,” said d’Escoto, who installed temporary seats a few blocks to the east last summer for people who wanted to view work on the Wacker Drive reconstruction project.
The CTA installation, in fact, is related to the Wacker work. The new $4 million section of elevated track is being financed by Wacker project funds and will carry trains over the roadway, which is in the midst of a $200 million, two-year makeover.
In a carefully choreographed 54-hour effort that is scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. Friday, crews first will disconnect signal and other electrical components of 159 feet of the old elevated structure and then take it apart, piece by piece.
The key component of the new replacement span–a 111-foot-long, 25-foot-high segment–already has been built and now sits just to the east of the CTA tracks on a closed portion of Wacker. A heavy-duty wheeled hydraulic system will lift it off the pavement and roll it 75 feet west and 5 feet north, putting it into place.
All work, including reconnection of signals and the electrified third rail, is to be completed in time for Monday morning’s rush when service on the line will be restored, officials said.
Over the weekend, Brown Line passengers headed for downtown will exit at the Merchandise Mart station and board buses for Loop rail stations. A shuttle train will operate around the Loop during construction making all Brown Line stops.
When the Wacker Drive project is completed, the new span will benefit motorists because it eliminates columns in the middle of the Wacker-Wells intersection and eliminates column foundations from Lower Wacker.
Meanwhile, Mayor Richard Daley, who appeared with other officials at a news conference at the construction site, said he favors making permanent Loop parking restrictions that were put in place for the Wacker project.
In an effort to minimize congestion, officials banned parking during morning and evening rush hours and launched an aggressive towing program when the project began last year.
On a related front, CTA President Frank Kruesi said the transit authority is studying the possibility of using cameras installed on CTA buses to record the license plates of illegally parked vehicles in the downtown area to crack down on violators. Various legal questions must be addressed, however, before a decision is made to proceed with video ticketing.
