text: Work begins on Chapin Street pedestrian bridge - schurz-southbendtribune
  Work begins on Chapin Street pedestrian bridge
  June 04, 2012|By KEVIN ALLEN - Follow me @KevinAllenSBT | South Bend Tribune
  South Bend Tribune/SANTIAGO FLORES Workers place a tarp over a pedestrian bridge Monday on Chapin Street south of Western Avenue. That portion of Chapin will be closed until June 15 while the maintenance project is under way. The bridge is scheduled to reopen by July 1.
  SOUTH BEND -- Work is under way to fix up the 44-year-old pedestrian bridge that crosses Chapin Street south of Western Avenue.
  The city's Common Council appropriated $250,000 in November for maintenance on the span that connects South Bend Housing Authority apartments with the Salvation Army's new Kroc Center.
  Gary Gilot, the city's interim director of public works, said Northern Indiana Construction workers began welding plates on the bridge's deck and doing other preparatory work last week.
  Chapin was closed Monday south of Western as the crew began removing lead paint from the structure and capturing it for disposal. The road closure is scheduled to continue until June 15.
  The entire project, which is scheduled to be finished July 1, includes a new paint job, a new coating on the concrete walking surface and replacing the chain-link mesh on the bridge.
  Former Mayor Stephen Luecke originally asked the council last year to approve spending $700,000 to tear down and replace the bridge entirely. He changed his request last fall to fund long-deferred maintenance on the bridge instead.
  The incline on the existing bridge's ramps are too steep to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Luecke and other city officials have said the maintenance project won't erase the bridge's grandfathered status under the ADA.