Telegraph/Telephone Poles On Overpass


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Telegraph/Telephone Poles On Overpass
Posted by: WayOutWardell (---.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: November 14, 2014 02:02AM

Noticed something today I'd never seen before...

On southbound I-57 approaching 107th, there's a green-painted railroad overpass. In the middle of the span, there are two telegraph poles that are held onto the side of the structure by steel cylinders. The wires are long-gone.

It's as though the lines couldn't be rerouted or otherwise strung across in a better way when the bridge was constructed.

I've never seen another set-up like this, not that I paid attention to such things before.

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Re: Telegraph/Telephone Poles On Overpass
Posted by: davey7 (---.dsl.chcgil.ameritech.net)
Date: November 14, 2014 11:36AM

I would have thought that it was signal wires for the RR or one of the utility companies owned a ROW there and had to keep them in place and in use during construction.

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Re: Telegraph/Telephone Poles On Overpass
Posted by: ambrosemario (---.hsd1.in.comcast.net)
Date: November 14, 2014 11:39PM

That overpass was property of the Pennsylvania, later the Penn-Central RR. It's trains ran along Beverly Avenue and bisected the Rock Island Tracks at 103rd. & Vincennes. The Pennsylvania tracks are long gone and houses were built along its Beverly Avenue stretch at least 30/35 years ago.

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Re: Telegraph/Telephone Poles On Overpass
Posted by: WayOutWardell (---.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: November 15, 2014 12:24AM

Good to know, thanks. Is that old ROW part of the bike path now?

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Re: Telegraph/Telephone Poles On Overpass
Posted by: ambrosemario (---.hsd1.in.comcast.net)
Date: November 15, 2014 03:28PM

I'm not aware of any efforts to turn the right of way into a bike path. Truth is those tracks went through what are now some very high crime areas. I'd love to know who and how someone was able to build on the right-of-way along Beverly avenue. I suppose it was possible to buy it out of the Penn-Central bankruptcy, but I was always under the impression that right of ways reverted back to the government.

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Re: Telegraph/Telephone Poles On Overpass
Posted by: Richard Stachowski (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: November 16, 2014 02:48PM

[b]Could not see it on google street view.[size=medium][/size][/b]

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Re: Telegraph/Telephone Poles On Overpass
Posted by: ambrosemario (---.hsd1.in.comcast.net)
Date: November 16, 2014 03:21PM

I stand corrected. The Pennsylvania right-of-way has been converted to a trail called the Major Taylor Trail. It is labeled as such on Google maps.

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Re: Telegraph/Telephone Poles On Overpass
Posted by: bowler (---.chipublib.org)
Date: December 22, 2014 10:19PM

You can see them from Google Maps. Here is the best angle I was able to get:

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7009204,-87.652994,3a,75y,245.43h,92.65t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sniYz-vz45EYNBitTDUiFlg!2e0

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