UP Melrose Street Bridge (North Center)

View an article discussing this track elevation project (digitalized by Google)

This bridge carries the Union Pacific North Line over Melrose Street near Ravenswood Avenue in the North Center neighborhood of Chicago. During the late 19th Century, railroad traffic within the City of Chicago posed a serious hazard to the general population. Starting in the mid-1890s, the City of Chicago passed a number of ordinances mandating the elevation of tracks within the city. An ordinance was passed on March 30th, 1896 requiring the elevation of the Milwaukee Division of the Chicago & North Western Railway (C&NW) between Diversey Parkway and Balmoral Avenue. Construction began soon after, and was largely completed in 1897. This section of track elevation required relatively few retaining walls, and the fill was constructed of sand shipped from Indiana. This project was one of the first large scale track elevation projects in Chicago.

During 1896, work progressed from Berteau Avenue south to Diversey Parkway, and this bridge was constructed that year. The bridge consists of a 70-foot through plate girder span, set onto stone abutments. The girder spans are typical for early track elevation projects, consisting of a traditional floor constructed of stringers and floorbeams, covered by a sheet metal deck. In addition, the ends of the girders are rounded. The bridge was initially constructed for three tracks, although the westernmost track was removed in the 1980s. Lassig Bridge & Iron Works fabricated the girders for this track elevation project. This company fabricated numerous spans for the C&NW, and had its shop along this line at Wrightwood Avenue. However, the industrial lead into the Lassig shops was too sharp to allow the spans for this project to be shipped whole, and the pieces were instead assembled at the division shops before being installed. Stone for the abutments was quarried at a railroad owned quarry near Duck Creek, Wisconsin, and the abutments and retaining walls were constructed by contract.

This type of structure was initially popular for grade separations in Chicago, but fell out of favor as trough floor spans and concrete spans became more economical. The metal floor of this design of bridge was susceptible to pooling water, which would cause corrosion to the steel. In addition, the through girder design limited horizontal clearances on the bridge. In 2011, Metra began a project to replace the bridges between Grace Street and Balmoral Avenue, completing the project in 2020. A second project is planned to replace the bridges between Fullerton Avenue and Cornelia Avenue beginning in late 2024. The bridges will be replaced with new through plate girder spans, installed on new concrete abutments. Overall, the bridge is in poor condition, with significant section loss and deterioration seen throughout the superstructure. The author has ranked this bridge as being locally significant, due to the common design.