Riverwalk to dip below Clark Street Bridge next City misses FOIA request deadline (Above) A pre-cast slab of concrete is delivered to the Dearborn Street Bridge on September 2. (Photo by Chicago Department of Transportation. Click on image to view large version.) Sep. 28, 2014 – Clark Street will apparently be the next Chicago River bridge under which a Riverwalk walkway will be installed. Chicago Department of Transportation says they expect delivery of the pre-cast concrete structure around October 10. It will connect a stretch of the Riverwalk called The Cove to a stretch called River Theater. “The project continues to make good progress with the installation of the structural concrete elements of the Riverwalk,” reported Oswaldo Chaves, the Riverwalk project manager for CDOT, in an update on Friday. Over the next week, workers will continue installing rebar on the under-bridge structure below the south leaf of the Dearborn Street Bridge. That pre-cast slab arrived on September 2. They will continue pumping water out of the spaces between old and new river walls and backfilling with crushed stone. New drainage structures and electrical conduits will be installed and forms will be built for walls, stair footings, planters, and the concrete cap over the sheet piles. CDOT ignores FOIA request Chicago Department of Transportation missed a deadline to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Loop North News on September 18. Loop North News is now trying to confirm with CDOT if it intends to deny the request, in which case a review will be requested from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. Refusing to respond to a FOIA request exposes the city to a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation. Loop North News is seeking information related to construction delays this year and the project’s overall budget that CDOT has refused to provide.
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