Aldermen knocked the simultaneous shutdown of several North Side and downtown bridges Wednesday as they vetted Mayor Brandon Johnson’s infrastructure spending proposals for next year.

The City Council kicked off nearly a month of department-specific budget hearings by grilling Craig Turner, interim Chicago Department of Transportation commissioner. Rather than focusing on the mayor’s proposed 2026 spending , they lobbed an array of ward-level nuts-and-bolts questions: Why is street resurfacing slow? Why aren’t the sidewalks fixed faster? What are you doing to slow down traffic by the school?

And over and over, aldermen representing the Near North Side and downtown asked why so many of their bridges are currently out of commission.

“You’ve created quite a bit of chaos in rush hour,” A

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