CHICAGO | Motorists who regularly use Ewing Avenue in the South Chicago neighborhood will be inconvenienced for about two weeks when the Chicago Department of Transportation repairs the bridge at 92nd Street.
Work to repair the gears on the movable bridge that spans the Calumet River will begin 9 a.m. Oct. 15, closing the bridge until 3 p.m. Nov. 2, a spokesman for the transportation department said. He said the work would cost $950,000.
"The bridge is in an advanced stage of wear," said spokesman Pete Scales. "The gears and the rack that raises the west leaf on the north side of the river needs to be replaced. One side of the bridge was done in the spring. We are going to fix the north gear train on the west leaf, closest to the lake."
The Calumet River at that point flows into Lake Michigan via the Calumet Harbor.
A detour route will take northbound motorists at the 95th Street and Ewing Avenue intersection west on 95th Street to South Chicago Avenue northwest to Harbor Avenue and then east to the corner of 92nd Street and Ewing Avenue.
A message board has been placed at the intersection warning motorists of the pending construction work.
The bridge opens 6,000 times a year for passing vessels on the Calumet River and has been hit numerous times by watercraft, Scales said.
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