After a delay of nearly a year, the Chicago Department of Transportation next month will begin demolishing the crumbling Western Avenue overpass at Belmont and Clybourn avenues, a department spokesman said.
Starting March 1, CDOT will take the first step to remove the severely deteriorated and outdated viaduct over Belmont and replace it with a new five-leg intersection at Western, Belmont and Clybourn avenues, according to department spokesman Michael Claffey.
The project is expected to take 18 months and is being paid for with $26 million in federal and state funding. The goal is to improve traffic and pedestrian flow along a 1 1/4-mile stretch of Western Avenue from Jones Street to Waveland Avenue.
After construction is completed in the fall of 2017, Western will accommodate three lanes of traffic in each direction during morning and evening rush periods. New sidewalks along Western will be wider and the intersections will be outfitted with pedestrian countdown timers. More on-street parking is also part of the plan.
But first will come some traffic headaches. Through the end of this month, there will be intermittent daytime lane closures underneath the viaduct while workers prepare for demolition and install temporary traffic signals.
Demolishing the viaduct is expected to take six months, during which time traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction. After that phase is completed, two lanes in each direction will be open.
CDOT is recommending drivers take Ashland Avenue as an alternate north-south route during construction, and Diversey Parkway as an east-west detour route.
“I think it will be an improvement, but I think it’s going to suck for the first few months as they tear it down right in front of my house,” said Kristin Thompson, who lives on Western in the shadow of the viaduct.
The city originally set out to begin work on taking down the crumbling 50-plus-year-old viaduct last spring. CDOT, however, ran into delays in purchasing three slivers of three commercial properties needed to begin the demolition and improvements.
Many residents consider the Western viaduct, built in 1960-61 to carry traffic over crowded streets near the Riverview amusement park, a hulking blight. The need for the viaduct was short-lived. Riverview closed in 1967.
“I just think it looks unsafe,” said Corey Feulner, 25, who lives in the area.
“See right here?” he said, pointing to an area where its crumbling concrete underbelly revealed rusted metal rods. “It looks terrible. It’s falling apart.”
Officials have said the viaduct is rated structurally deficient, which doesn’t mean the span is unsafe, but it requires major maintenance, rehabilitation or replacement. A plan to rebuild the viaduct would have been a more expensive option, Claffey said.
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![Claudia Perez’s children could count on one hand the number of times they had seen their father cry. The day their mother left was one of them. Perez had worked her whole life for a dream that did not come true: Save enough money to take her family back to Mexico and live together in the town where they were all born. Instead, on a cold February day, she stepped onto a bus in Brighton Park and said goodbye, making the difficult choice between her loved ones in Mexico and her family in Chicago. “Don’t leave my love. No te […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ctc-VHR5442_183545767.jpg?w=525 "Claudia Perez’s children could count on one hand the number of times they had seen their father cry. The day their mother left was one of them. Perez had worked her whole life for a dream that did not come true: Save enough money to take her family back to Mexico and live together in the town where they were all born. Instead, on a cold February day, she stepped onto a bus in Brighton Park and said goodbye, making the difficult choice between her loved ones in Mexico and her family in Chicago. “Don’t leave my love. No te […]")
