10/22/2026
On October 14th, AltusWorks’ Director of Transportation, Terry Sullivan gave a Wendella boat tour on the Chicago River with CDOT Bridge Program Manager, Alejandro Zepeda, as part of the 2026 Northeast-Midwest Bridge Preservation Partnership conference. This unique event focused on the history of Chicago’s bridges rather than the usual focus on buildings. The tour was even more exciting due to the ongoing Lake Street bridge replacement work, one of our favorite projects in partnership with Chicago Department of Transportation , Granite Construction , HNTB, and AECOM The west leaf of bridge - roadway, trusses and EL tracks – was removed the night before and the south branch of the Chicago River reopened just two hours before the tour allowing full visibility to the complexity of the work.
The conference brought together over 500 structural engineers and industry members, the majority attending the boat tour were from out of town. Chicago has such an amazing and vast history of architecture and bridges, from the first bridge at Kinzie in 1832 to the current 60 draw bridges. Safe to say that the crowd was captivated and enjoyed their trip all the way from Michigan Avenue up to Goose Island then down to Cermak Bridge. We couldn’t be prouder to call Chicago home.
Checkout AltusWorks’ Interactive Chicago River Map from the link below.
https://altusworks.com/chicagoriverbridges/ #16/41.8883/-87.6318