Months overdue, downtown's State Street Bridge set to reopen Friday

The State Street Bridge is scheduled to reopen on Friday after a nearly year-long closure for emergency repairs, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation.

First constructed in 1949, it was one of four bridges closed for repairs or replacement in the last year. The closures have caused headaches for commuters, and complaints from some City Council members who have pressured the Transportation Department for greater transparency around planned bridge closures.

Before the closure, nearly 7,000 vehicles passed over the bridge daily, with roughly one-tenth of them being trucks, according to a 2025 inspection filed with the state.

City officials expected the State Street Bridge repairs to take seven months when the bridge was suddenly closed to traffic in April 2025 for emergency repairs. But engineers discovered the bridge was in worse shape than first thought, extending the closure for several months.

The bridge is one of several downtown bascule bridges which can be raised to allow river traffic to pass underneath. According to CDOT, the repairs included: replacing the bridge's center locks and its center joint, which caused damage to the roadway during periods of extreme heat; realigning the bridge leaves; fixing the State Street viaduct and sidewalks just north of the river; and replacing the bridge's floorbeam and bracing.

Once the State Street Bridge reopens, the city will have at least three ongoing bridge replacements: the Chicago Avenue Bridge isn't scheduled to reopen until December; the Cortland Street Bridge, the city's oldest bascule bridge, could be closed until September 2027; and the Lake Street Bridge isn’t expected to reopen until January 2028.

The city is also preparing to replace two Division Street bridges over the North Branch of the Chicago River, but the timing of those closures have not yet been announced.