​ORIGINAL SPAN OF PROJECT

The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) today announced the start of a major rehabilitation project on the Cortland Street Bridge over the North Branch of the Chicago River. Beginning September 22, 2025, Cortland Street will be closed to vehicle traffic in both directions between Mendell Street and Kingsbury Street. The closure is expected to last approximately 18–24 months. One sidewalk will remain open until winter 2025.

The Cortland Street Bridge was built in the early 1900s and is the oldest bascule bridge in Chicago. The scope of the project involves replacing the bridge deck, steel floor system, and counterweights, and installing new concrete-filled grating, timber sidewalks, railings, and lighting. The bridge houses will also be rehabilitated. The project will retain the character of this historic bridge and is intended to add at least 40 years of service life to the bridge.

Detour Routes:
 

• Eastbound Cortland Street: Traffic will be detoured southbound on Ashland Avenue, eastbound on North Avenue, and northbound on Clybourn Avenue to return to Cortland Street.

• Westbound Cortland Street: Traffic will be detoured southbound on Clybourn Avenue, westbound on North Avenue, and northbound on Ashland Avenue to return to Cortland Street.

• People biking may use the sidewalk on the Cortland Street Bridge during the first phase of the project. Additional detour details and timing will be shared ahead of the full sidewalk closure scheduled for this winter.
   

UPDATE 8/19/2026

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In an update on the state of the Cortland Bridge, CDOT put out a statement that reads in part: "The structural assessment confirmed that the nearly 125-year-old bridge is no longer capable of safely carrying vehicular traffic in its current condition. Because of the complexity and extent of the necessary work to restore the bridge, CDOT must re-evaluate the rehabilitation approach. Restoring the Cortland Street Bridge will be a multi-year effort, and it will remain closed to vehicular traffic as CDOT advances the required environmental review, engineering, and design work."

 

Since there seems to be no end in sight to the asessments and repairs, I have asked the Commissioner of CDOT to proceed with efforts to remove the landmark status of the Cortland Bridge in order to build a new bridge that will meet federal standards. 

 

On August 13th, my office met with CDOT engineers regarding the continued and extended closure of the Cortland bridge. The new timeline extending the closure of the bridge is not acceptable and after years of repeated repairs to the failing bridge, the only option at this point is to replace the bridge. 

 

The bridge continues to deteriorate; requiring more closures, more delays for users of all modes of transportation and more waste of taxpayer dollars. Years of apparent repairs have not worked, as documented by CDOT. 

 

The recent timeline of problems included 2015 repairs on structural steel that were critically deteriorated. In 2019, CDOT again asked for significant repairs, closing the bridge for months. Then in the fall of 2025 CDOT stated that several area bridges including Cortland, “are exceeding their service life and require either replacement or major rehabilitation and the Cortland Bridge is “currently considered to be 'Serious' condition by federal standards.” “Like Lake Street, the Cortland Street Bridge has gone through multiple repairs overs its 100+ years and is beyond the stage of being able to perform localized repairs.”  

 

In October 28, 2025, eight council colleagues sent a letter to CDOT addressing the traffic disaster created by CDOT's combined closures of the bridges and roads at State Street, Lake Street, Chicago Avenue, Halsted Street, and Cortland Avenue.

 

It is clear from a multitude of memos and discussions over the last several years that the Cortland Street bridge has passed beyond its useful life and is in need of replacement to avoid more multi-year closures.

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UPDATE 10/24/2025

 

Alderman Waguespack, along with a number of his colleagues, sent a letter to Acting Commissioner Craig Turner to request expedited traffic congestion mitigation assistance. Below is a copy of their letter and you can see CDOT's response here.
 

Craig Turner, Acting Commissioner

Chicago Department of Transportation

2 North LaSalle Street, #1110

Chicago, Illinois 60602

 

October 24, 2025

 

RE: Request for Congestion Mitigation Assistance

Via email

 

Dear Mayor Johnson and Acting Commissioner Turner,

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We, the undersigned members of the City Council, respectfully request expedited traffic congestion mitigation assistance in regard to the multiple river bridge closures negatively affecting our wards in the Loop, Near North, West Town, Lincoln Park, and Logan Square community areas.

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As stated in many of our comments at the October 22, 2025 meeting of the City Council Committee on Budget and Government Operations, the combined closures of the bridges at State Street, Lake Street, Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street, and Cortland Avenue have created an untenable traffic congestion situation for tens of thousands of our residents in their daily transportation as motorists, bus transit users, cyclists, and

pedestrians alike. Though outside of the Chicago Department of Transportation’s jurisdiction, for this to also be happening in the midst of the Illinois Department of Transportation’s work on the Kennedy Expressway and its ramps and feeders has made

for incredibly poor conditions.

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Our residents are in great need of creative solutions such as additional construction moratoriums on routes being commonly used as alternate routes (whether those routes are the official detours or not), parking restrictions, turn lane closures, signal re-timing, traffic aides at critical intersections during peak hours, and anything else that could help. The duration of many of these projects is of great concern as some are expected to last years. Exploration of work on nights and weekends to move reopening dates up must also be considered. Collectively, our offices have received over a thousand complaints wanting to understand what can only be described as a lack of coordination of major projects.

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Thank you for your commitment at the committee hearing to work with our offices on this significant quality-of-life issue. Treatment of the matter with utmost urgency is needed and appreciated.

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Sincerely,

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Daniel La Spata, Alderman, 1st Ward

Brian Hopkins, Alderman, 2nd Ward

Walter Redmond Burnett, Alderman, 27th Ward
Scott Waguespack, Alderman, 32nd Ward

Bill Conway, Alderman, 34th Ward

Gilbert Villegas, Alderman, 36th Ward

Brendan Reilly, Alderman, 42nd Ward

Timmy Knudsen, Alderman, 43rd Ward