Widening Eliminates Congestion – I-294 Bridges, Markham Yard

Stanley Consultants provided engineering services for two mainline bridges.  These 17-span bridges are one half-mile in length and cross over a major railroad switching yard.  The project included the reconstruction and widening of 2,000 feet of roadway, 1,766 feet of dual bridge structure and 1,600 feet of tied-back soldier pile retaining walls.  The purpose of this project was to add two mainline travel lanes plus full median shoulders in both directions along the Tri-State Tollway.

Due to the complexity of this project, the widening was stage constructed over a three-year period.  The project included removal, replacement or rehabilitation of 47 substructure units, substructure and foundation widening at 34 locations and a complete concrete deck and steel girder replacement and widening.

A major obstacle was that the intermodal tracks were close to existing piers and operated on a 24/7 schedule.  Metra tracks had to remain operational for all but a few hours each day and since flooding was already a problem, creating additional runoff was not an option.

As a result, the bottleneck was completely eliminated.  Existing piers were salvaged and widened using staged construction on kinked alignments to avoid track relocation and delay, and stormwater runoff was piped to underground detention units.