Chicago bridge permit bonds.
From $100. Enter your amount.
The Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) manages more than 300 bridge and viaduct structures across the city, including the movable bridges over the Chicago and Calumet Rivers, and requires a permit — backed by a surety bond — for construction or utility work that affects a bridge, a viaduct, or the public way immediately adjacent to one. Premiums cost 2% of the bond amount, $100 minimum; the application collects no credit information, and most applications approve instantly.
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Apply to filed in one sitting.
No long underwriting queue for the standard bridge permit bond — enter your amount, pay, and file with CDOT. Here is the whole thing:
Apply online
Your company details, the bond amount your bridge permit requires, and the effective date — that is the entire application.
Approved
The application collects no credit information, and most applications approve instantly. Because bridge work can run large, bigger bond amounts may get a brief underwriter review.
File with CDOT
Submit the executed bond to the Chicago Department of Transportation with your bridge or public-way permit application. Wet-ink originals mailed on request.
What it is and who needs it.
What the bridge permit bond actually guarantees
CDOT holds permitting authority over the public way, including the area in and around the roughly 300 bridges and viaducts it maintains — 37 of them movable spans over the Chicago and Calumet Rivers. No work in the public way, including work that touches or is adjacent to a bridge structure, may start without an approved permit, and CDOT can require a bond as a condition of issuing one.
It is a three-party arrangement: you (the principal), the surety carrier, and the City of Chicago (the obligee), with the public and the City as the protected parties. If permitted work damages a bridge structure, obstructs navigation or traffic beyond what the permit allows, or is left unrestored, the City can recover against the bond up to the amount your permit set.
It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays a claim, you repay the surety. There is no single citywide bond figure: CDOT sizes it to the scope of the specific bridge or public-way work your permit covers, so enter the amount stated on your permit paperwork.
You need this bond if you are
One application, then a fast decision.
Submit the application with the bond amount your CDOT bridge permit requires. The application collects no credit information, and most applications approve instantly.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Illinois bonds.
Get your CDOT bridge permit bond filed today.
From $100, soft pull only. Enter your permit amount and file with CDOT the same day. Free until issued.