Chicago Viaducts
Chicago viaducts are legendary. I have known about them since I was a kid. Back then there were a lot of 12' 6” trailers. Warehouses were often multi story. Things have changed. If you want a 12'6” trailer, you may have to get it custom made. Warehouses have become single story with 18' – 24' ceilings. Many of them have moved out to the suburbs. For those times when you go into Chicago – you better have a plan. That plan has to include vertical clearances.
Local truck stops around Chicago used to carry color keyed viaduct maps. You could unfold those maps and check your route. They worked great. I wore out a couple of those. Now, you just can't find those any more. Over the years, I have learned streets like Pershing, Western, 63rd, Ashland, and others that you could drive for long stretches without worrying about viaducts. I even learned that you could drive under the EL on Lake Street. Sure, there were a lot of turns that you could not make. You could learn the ones that you could. Running the Fulton Street meat market and the old stockyards taught me some streets to avoid as well as the ones that I could use.
GET Directions – Trust but Verify! The person giving the directions may give you the directions that they use to get there with their car.
My TND seems to do a good job of routing me around the low viaducts, but it does not know where I have enough room to actually make the turn. Check out www.cityofchicago.org they have a low viaduct list. You have to type “vertical clearance” into the search box. It lists the vertical clearances alphabetically. It isn't perfect. It has 45 pages and about a gazillion viaducts listed. If you have a planned route, you can cross check it against the list. Unfortunately, if there is a low viaduct listed you're back to square one.
Better yet is, www.gettingaroundillinois.com . They have an actual map with weight restrictions and vertical clearances. Once you get to the site click on the restrictions icon. I had difficulty moving around on the map. It is hard to read on a smaller screen, but you can enlarge it. Follow your route on the map. Then you can click on the pictured viaduct for the actual clearance. This map has a lot of potential. Nobody wants you to get stuck under a viaduct. They are trying to help. Hopefully with some trucker input, they can get a map that is easy for truckers to use.
All signs are not exact. It is better to not try to go under a viaduct that is high enough, than to try to go
under one that is not. Look for marks where the bridge has been hit by other truckers. If it is marked up – NO! If it isn't let someone else go first!
What I would like to see: I want an electronic map that a trucker can see on a tablet. Where the trucker can easily move it to cross check routing with vertical clearances. All clearances above 13' 7” color coded in green, 13'4” - 13'7” coded in yellow. bridges below 13'4” coded in red, all of the icons could be clicked on for accurate height. In addition, I would like to see the “clean” streets coded in blue. There are a lot of passionate and intelligent people who can work on this. Let's get it done.