In an analysis of more than 300 "fracture critical" bridges across the country, Bloomberg CityLab ranked three in the Chicago area, including two in the heart of the city, that are among the most structurally troubled.
Bloomberg's review of government inspection reports found 14 bridges in the U.S. that have significant deficiencies in each of three critical structural elements. Those bridges in Chicago are: the Lake Street bridge crossing the South Branch of the Chicago River, the Chicago Avenue bridge across the North Branch of the river, and the Harlem Avenue bridge over the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal just north of where the street crosses Interstate 55.
Citing U.S. Federal Highway Administration data, Bloomberg reports that an average of 65,950 vehicles cross the three bridges daily and more than half of them over the Harlem bridge. The only bridge in the country that eclipses the Harlem bridge on that count is the Calcasieu River Bridge in Louisiana.
The report comes amid heightened scrutiny on the state of the nation's aging bridges after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last month.
