Chicago Skyway

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Chicago Skyway
Length: 7.8 mi[1] (13 km)
Formed: April 1958
West end: I-90/94 at the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago
Major
junctions:		 US 12/US 20/US 41 at the Illinois-Indiana state line.
East end: I-90/Indiana Toll Road at the Illinois-Indiana state line.

The Chicago Skyway also known as Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge System is a 7.8 mile (12.5 km) long tollway bridging Interstate 90 at the Dan Ryan Expressway on the west end, and the Indiana Toll Road on the east end.

The main feature of the Skyway is a 1/2-mile (800 m) long steel truss bridge, known as the "High Bridge". The bridge spans the Calumet River and Calumet Harbor, a major harbor for industrial ships. The main span is 650 feet (197 m) long, provides for 125 feet (37.9 m) of vertical clearance, and is the highest road in Chicago. Between 2001 and 2004 authorities spent $250 million (USD) to rebuild much of the Skyway.

The toll is $3.00 for passenger cars and other two axle vehicles, with higher rates for vehicles with multiple axles. A discount is given during the overnight hours for vehicles with three or more axles.

The bridge is heavily documented by the Library of Congress Historic American Engineering Record Survey number HAER IL-145. The survey consists of nearly 30 data pages and 21 black and white images.

Contents

[edit] History

Eastbound view on the Chicago Skyway bridge
Eastbound view on the Chicago Skyway bridge

The Chicago Skyway was originally known as the Calumet Skyway. It cost $101 million to construct and took about 34 months to build. Nearly eight miles of elevated roadway, it was originally built as a shortcut to Indiana and the steel mills from the southeast side of Chicago; there are only two eastbound exits east of the toll barrier, whereas there are four westbound exits west of the toll barrier. It opened April 16, 1958.[2]

In the 1960s, the newly constructed Dan Ryan Expressway and neighboring Calumet Expressway, Kingery Expressway and Borman Expressway provided free alternatives to the tollway, and the Skyway became much less used. As a result, from the 1970s through the early 1990s, the Skyway was unable to repay revenue bonds used in its construction.[3] Numerous proposals were floated in the 1980s and 1990s to tear down the Skyway because of low traffic counts.

Traffic volumes have rebounded in recent years, (to 47,700 vehicles per day)[4] partially because of the construction of casinos in Northwest Indiana, and the City of Chicago claims a record number of motorists used the skyway in 2002.

In 2003 and 2004, the city of Chicago initiated a $250 million project to rehabilitate and widen the Skyway. The project involved extensive work on the cantilever span and its approaches that included replacing the bridge's structural steel and rebuilding the piers that support the structure, and reconstructing the bridge deck. Because the City of Chicago required the Skyway to remain open during construction, engineers had to construct temporary bridge piers that would bear the load of the bridge and its traffic while new piers were built. Once ready, the bridge was lifted up onto the temporary piers using 600 ton hydraulic jacks, the old piers were removed, and new ones were built. Crews also devised innovative methods for replacing the bridge's structural steel, replacing steel members one at a time. This process involved installing hydraulic chords around the component to be replaced. The bridge load was then transferred to the hydraulic chord, the steel member was removed and a new steel member was then installed.[5]

Chicago Skyway, Summer 1999
Chicago Skyway, Summer 1999

Recently, major construction on both the Kingery and Borman expressways has increased traffic on the Skyway, as well as the presence of riverboat casinos in Hammond and East Chicago, Indiana. In June 2005 the Skyway became compatible with electronic toll collection, with users now able to pay tolls using I-PASS or E-ZPass transponders.

Chicago Skyway toll plaza
Chicago Skyway toll plaza

The Chicago Skyway was a part of the New York-Chicago Toll Road system. The City of Chicago's Department of Streets and Sanitation formerly maintained the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge System. A transaction that gave the City of Chicago a $1.83 billion dollar cash infusion leased the Skyway to the Skyway Concession Company (SCC), a joint-venture between the Australian Macquarie Infrastructure Group and Spanish Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte S.A., which assumed operations on the Skyway on a 99-year operating lease. SCC will be responsible for all operating and maintenance costs of the Skyway but has the right to all toll and concession revenue. The Triple-A bond insurer Financial Security Assurance Inc. (FSA) has guaranteed $1.4 billion of senior bonds to provide long-term funding for the privately operated Chicago Skyway. On June 30, 2006, this same joint-venture assumed responsibility for operating and maintaining the adjacent Indiana East-West Toll Road for $3.8 billion. The agreement between SCC and the City of Chicago marked the first time an existing toll road was moved from public to private ownership toll road in the United States.[6]

Historically, the Chicago Skyway was signed as and was widely considered to be part of I-90. However, around 1999, the City of Chicago realized they had never received official approval to designate the skyway as I-90. (In addition, it is not built to Interstate standards, although recently there have been substantial upgrades.) The city subsequently replaced most of the "I-90" signage with "TO I-90" signage. However, the Illinois DOT has always and continues to report the skyway as part of the Interstate system, and the Federal Highway Administration apparently still considers the Chicago Skyway an official part of I-90.[7]

The Skyway's official name, referring to it as a "toll bridge" rather than a "toll road", is the result of a legal quirk. At the time of its construction, the city charter of Chicago did not provide the authority to construct a toll road. However, the city could build toll bridges, and it was found that there was no limit to the length of the approaches to the bridge. Therefore, the Skyway is technically a toll bridge with a six-mile-long approach. This also is part of the reason that there are no exits available until after one has crossed the bridge and paid the toll.[citation needed]

[edit] Exit list

The entire road is in Chicago, Cook County.

Mile
[citation needed]		 Destinations Notes
101 I-90 west / I-94 west (Dan Ryan Expressway) – Chicago Loop Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
102 State Street Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
103 St. Lawrence Avenue Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
104 73rd Street Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
105 Stony Island Avenue to Lake Shore Drive Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
107 87th Street Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
Chicago Skyway toll plaza
108 Anthony Avenue, 92nd Street Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
110 US 12 / US 20 / US 41 (Indianapolis Boulevard) Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
I-90 east (Indiana Toll Road) to I-80 / I-65 / I-94 Continuation into Indiana

[edit] References

  1. ^ Skyway Concession Company, LLC (2005). Chicago Skyway. Retrieved on 2007-07-07.
  2. ^ Chicago Area Transportation Study. System Facilities. Retrieved on 2007-07-07.
  3. ^ McClendon, Dennis (2005). Skyway. Retrieved on 2007-07-07.
  4. ^ Illinois Department of Transportation (2005). Getting Around Illinois. Retrieved on 2007-07-07.
  5. ^ Chicago Skyway Rehab: Hydraulics Boost Productivity Enerpac Hydraulics Inc..
  6. ^ Associated Press (2004-10-17). Chicago privatizes Skyway toll road in $1.8 billion deal. Southern Illinoisian (Carbondale, IL). Retrieved on 2008-03-04.
  7. ^ Samuel, Peter. "Skyway is Interstate-90 unless state withdraws reports - Feds", TOLLROADSnews, 2005-06-29. Retrieved on 2007-01-20. 

[edit] External links