Transportation
Multi-span, 127th Street Bridge Over IAIS/Metra Railroad – Blue Island, IL
Awards: CFCI Engineering Excellence Honor Award
Size: 13 spans totaling 1,500 feet and 1 mile of roadway
The existing 127th Street bridge was a 13-span structure spanning 14 sets of railroad tracks with a total lengh of 1,500 feet back-to- back of abutments. Four lanes with a sidewalks on each side of the roadway made up the structure’s 56-foot, 3-inch cross-section.
Improvements to the structure included widened lanes and sidewalks, complete superstructure removal, and substructure repairs. The outer three spans at each end of the bridge were filled and supported by 30-foot high mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) retaining wall systems. Six-foot deep composite steel plate girders were used to support the remaining seven spans with the maximum span being 174 feet.
A staged construction plan was developed to avoid disruption and damage to a 54-inch combined sewer that ran through the site.
Approximately 1-mile of urban approach roadway improvements were also included as part of the project.
