Last Saturday the Montrose Avenue bridge entered the final stage of demolition. They removed Span 2, stage 1 beams. The concrete girders were sliced longitudinally at the midpoint between webs, lifted with two cranes positioned on the expressway below. The beams were dropped on the stage 2 side of the deck where two steel frames where built on top of two steel rails. Once positioned and secured to the two steel frames at each end, the beams were hauled one by one to the east approach on a system of rollers. Each beam was rubberized on site and the material hauled to disposal.

The removal of the 400kips post-tensioned girders included night work and lane closure on the expressway and temporary CTA closure. As during other stages of construction the bridge remained open to pedestrians for access to the CTA station. The Contractor will now start work on the substructure to get ready to erect steel that will be delivered to the site on July 10^th.

The project is progressing smoothly. Congratulations to our design team!