Closure, Demolition Nears For Western Avenue Viaduct Over Belmont
(CBS) -- Motorists and residents of Chicago's Roscoe Village neighborhood are bracing for a major construction project that begins next week.
"We're expecting the worst," said Roscoe Village resident Sarie Keller. "Melrose, School, Oakley, the alleys around the neighborhood are all treated as secondary thoroughfares to Western and Belmont constantly and I don't have any reason to believe that it's going to be better. We have every expectation that this will continue and get worse."
The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) announced that the Western Avenue viaduct, which opened in 1961, will be permanently closed on March 1.
Lisa Fielding
The demolition of the viaduct will occur during the first weekend of the project on March 4 and will require the full closure of Western to through traffic between Nelson and George streets as well as the intersection at Belmont.
After the weekend closure, there will be one lane of traffic open on Western Avenue in each direction for the first five months, with two lanes of traffic in each direction expected, until the project is complete.
CDOT has notified residents that some of the construction will be 24/7.
"We've been told that the heaviest construction is going to be near our residential pocket," said Keller. "They said it could be actually hard to sleep in our homes during that period."
CDOT said in a statement that special care will be taken during the demolition of the viaduct to reduce dust and monitor vibrations along the length of the viaduct.
"The general feeling among the neighbors is that this is a disaster from start to finish," said Keller. "I don't think any of us are sure of how we will get in and out of our homes. Not only during the construction but after because we're anticipating that the traffic that's previously been going over the bridge for the last 50 years will be now at street level and coming by our houses and it's going to be that much harder to make turns onto both Belmont and Western because there's going to be that much more of a traffic backlog."
The viaduct will be demolished and replaced by a new five-leg intersection at Western, Belmont and Clybourn and is expected to be complete by summer 2017.
CDOT says it will do its best to reduce dust and monitor the noise.
The existing Western Avenue overpass was built in 1961 in part, to serve visitors to the adjacent Riverview Amusement Park.
"I understand the bridge is an eyesore," Keller said. "I don't disagree that something needed to be done. I believe that bringing approximately 50,000 cars, CDOT estimates, daily to grade isn't going to impact the livability for this very densely residential neighborhood. They've tried to justify it by saying they are going to beautify the streets and make the sidewalks wider and plant some trees. That's not going to make it better when a truck is pumping its air brakes 100 feet from my door."
