This project provided railroad and vehicular traffic access to Pier 80. The design and construction of the Illinois Street Bridge included two 11-foot-wide traffic lanes with a shared centerline railroad track. The 525-foot-long bridge had 40-foot spans set on deep steel pile foundations with concrete pile caps. The superstructure consisted of steel girders and a concrete deck and an 85-foot-long movable span that provides a 65-foot-wide clear navigable channel for boat traffic. The span was a single leaf bascule non-counterweighted lift assembly and the bascule had been designed to be operated via hydraulic cylinders.
The movable span consisted of two, 7-foot-deep plate girders and rotated on 24-inch forged trunnion shafts set in large, spherical, self-lubricated bearings. The total weight of the movable span was 400,000 pounds, with the largest single erection pieces weighing 60,000 pounds.
Additional elements included the installation of traffic, train, and bridge controls and signalization to handle the various modes of bridge operation, the realignment and improvements of Illinois Street to the north and south of Islais Creek, and various new intersection construction.
