Circle Interchange update: Harrison bridge demolition starts April 8

Construction for the Circle Interchange project continues at Harrison and Halsted streets. Photo: Timothy Nguyen/UIC News

Demolition of the Harrison Street Bridge will begin April 8 as the Circle Interchange Project moves forward.

To minimize impact to the surrounding area, the bridge work will go on 24 hours a day.

Construction is progressing to other areas as well.

Workers are relocating power lines on the Morgan Street Bridge across the Eisenhower Expressway, necessary before bridge beams can be removed and replaced. Parking Lot 9 will remain accessible to drivers, but the westbound lanes of Harrison are closed until the work is completed, scheduled for April 23.

Once the Morgan Street Bridge power lines are removed, a large crane will be deployed to lift the new bridge beams over the expressway. This may block access to Lot 9 for short periods. The work, scheduled for April 15 to 17, will be done at night.

The construction will affect some telephone service on the east side of campus, as AT&T continues to relocate the phone line infrastructure beneath the Peoria and Halsted bridges.

Some Centrex phone users (non-VoIP) may experience a one-time loss of service lasting up to 10 minutes during this phase of the project, which begins April 8 and is expected to be completed May 31.

AT&T has said it cannot provide the phone numbers that may lose service temporarily. VoIP and cellphone service will not be affected.

Campus officials are working with AT&T to minimize the disruptions by limiting the work to 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekends.

Campus units should call 312-996-7171 if any Centrex lines are critical to operations. If a Centrex phone outage lasts more than up to 10 minutes, report the trouble to UIC Telecom.