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The reconstruction of the north leaf of the Wells St. bridge began as scheduled on April 27th 2013. The new river arm was delivered on April 6th. The first slide show chronicles the removal of the old river arm.
The video below shows the removal of the old river arm after it was cut from the trunnion end of the bridge leaf. The actual duration of the move was about 8 minutes. The video was sped up and lasts about a minute. The operation reminded me of jockeying out of a tight parallel parking spot. Hopefully the video quality is good enough to see that.
(YouTube Link if your browser won't play it)
The slide show below shows the installation of the new river arm on the north leaf. The photos span two days. Progress on the north leaf at this point was about 8 hrs ahead of the work on the south leaf.
This last slide show provides some photos of the last portion of the work on the north leaf. As was the case with the reconstruction of the south leaf, everyone involved deserves a hearty "thank you" from the citizens of Chicago for a job well done.