Kupferberg

Zachary Behr Kupferberg

The name of this bridge is the Chicago Sky Way Toll Bridge.

This Bridge was built in Chicago going into East Chicago, Indiana. The Chicago Sky Way Toll Bridge was first opened in April of 1958, then it was later rehabbed in 2003 and 2008. The Purpose of this was to make it easier to travel from the Northwest part of Indiana to Chicago. This bridge spans over the Calumet River and the Calumet Harbor. The Calumet Harbor is a very large harbor for industrial ships because the area of Northwest Indiana is very industrial. This Bridge was originally built as an easier way to get from the steel mills in Northwest Indiana to the South side of Chicago. The Chicago Sky Way Toll Bridge is a Truss bride. When first built in 1958 the Chicago Sky Way Toll Bridge costed $101 million, in 2003 costed $250 million after the second rehabbing and in 2008 $753 million after the second rehabbing. The Chicago Sky Way Toll Bridge was constructed of hydraulic chords, steel and hydraulic jacks. In 2002 the first time that the bridge needed rehab was because there were too many cars and the bridge would have excessive amounts of traffic. So the engineers expanded the bridge and while doing that they had to keep it open because it would have cause way too many problems so they replaced the bridges structural steel with piers to support the bridges weight during the construction so it would not fall. The bridge took 34 months to build before the April 16, 1958 opening. The Chicago Sky Way Toll Bridge is 1/2 of a mile long, the main span is 650 feet and it is 125 feet of vertical clearance which measures to be Chicago's highest road.

The Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge was part of I-90 from the 1960's and forward, but around 1999, the city of Chicago discovered that they had never officially received approval to designate the Chicago Sky way Toll Bridge as part of the I-90. The city replaced most of the "I-90" sign with "TO I-90" sign. The Illinois Department of Transportation has continued to report the Chicago Sky way Toll Bridge as part of the Interstate system.