Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by dan brown on September 29, 2009 at 4:21am

dunno .. damn city boondoggle for sure. I got caught in this twice so far. I rode over the bridge against oncoming traffic then you have to lift your bike high to squeeze between the guard rails. then there
was yellow police tape today and barricades....arrrrrrgggghhhh.

next time I turn and head West on Ohio...then swing by NBC5 studios and wave to my favorite newsbabe... :-)

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Permalink Reply by nom de plume on September 29, 2009 at 4:24am

I had the same experience as you, Amanda. I commute to the McDonalds' Bike Station in Millennium Park via the Lakefront Path and had an irritating combination of riding the wrong way down Illinois Street, then over the river on unpleasant Columbus Drive followed by a U-turn on Columbus just south of Randolph to get into Grant Park and up to upper Randolph. Yuck.

I heard from a fellow commuter that a section of the sidewalk near the Chicago River collapsed last night and apparently there was some sort of super-funky detour set up where you could ride southbound in a closed lane of the street of northbound lower LSD and use a maintenance gate to get your bike back onto the path just south of the river. Still sounds sketchy, but sounds way better than the detour you and I took.

I bet it takes a while to get this section of sidewalk fixed.

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Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on September 29, 2009 at 5:12am

OK, I will check with our Lakefront Trail advocate expert, Randy Warren and see what we can find out about this.

Thanks,
Ethan, with Active Trans

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Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on September 29, 2009 at 9:59am

The word we got from the Park District is that CDOT is doing some repairs on the bridge.

"They will have a detour up tomorrow that bicyclists and pedestrians can use. They will be closing the east car lane to vehicular traffic, securing boards to the bridge for a smooth ped/bike lane."

We will keep you posted if we hear anything else.

Thanks,
Ethan, with Active Trans

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Permalink Reply by Sam S on September 29, 2009 at 10:24am

Yes, there is a section of sidewalk completely *missing*, which is why it's closed. I and a few other cyclists were able to go north through the coned-off construction area (with the help of some nice CDOT workers) and use that maintenance gate to get back onto the path south of the bridge.

Also, thanks Ethan for the update.

evadsivad said:

I heard from a fellow commuter that a section of the sidewalk near the Chicago River collapsed last night and apparently there was some sort of super-funky detour set up where you could ride southbound in a closed lane of the street of northbound lower LSD and use a maintenance gate to get your bike back onto the path just south of the river. Still sounds sketchy, but sounds way better than the detour you and I took.

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Permalink Reply by nom de plume on September 29, 2009 at 10:30am

Sam, were you able to ride this way home tonight (northbound over the river)? Anyone else? I guess I'll find out the situation in a couple of hours, having avoided it this morning by going all the way over to Columbus.

Sam S said:

Yes, there is a section of sidewalk completely *missing*, which is why it's closed. I and a few other cyclists were able to go north through the coned-off construction area (with the help of some nice CDOT workers) and use that maintenance gate to get back onto the path south of the bridge.

evadsivad said:

I heard from a fellow commuter that a section of the sidewalk near the Chicago River collapsed last night and apparently there was some sort of super-funky detour set up where you could ride southbound in a closed lane of the street of northbound lower LSD and use a maintenance gate to get your bike back onto the path just south of the river. Still sounds sketchy, but sounds way better than the detour you and I took.

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Permalink Reply by Sam S on September 29, 2009 at 11:01am

I haven't gone that way yet, but I think it should be fine. The worst case would be that you have to lift your bike over that railing separating the sidewalk from the roadway and then bike with car traffic over the bridge. If that maintenance gate is open, or the official workaround is ready, then you can skip the railing-hopping.

evadsivad said:

Sam, were you able to ride this way home tonight (northbound over the river)? Anyone else? I guess I'll find out the situation in a couple of hours, having avoided it this morning by going all the way over to Columbus.

Sam S said:

Yes, there is a section of sidewalk completely *missing*, which is why it's closed. I and a few other cyclists were able to go north through the coned-off construction area (with the help of some nice CDOT workers) and use that maintenance gate to get back onto the path south of the bridge.

evadsivad said:

I heard from a fellow commuter that a section of the sidewalk near the Chicago River collapsed last night and apparently there was some sort of super-funky detour set up where you could ride southbound in a closed lane of the street of northbound lower LSD and use a maintenance gate to get your bike back onto the path just south of the river. Still sounds sketchy, but sounds way better than the detour you and I took.

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Permalink Reply by millenial removing Bernie tattoo on September 30, 2009 at 1:40am

The detour is up. However, they for some reason had a barricade completely blocking off the sidewalk @ Illinois street. Just go on the street to avoid it.

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Permalink Reply by nom de plume on September 30, 2009 at 4:02am

There could definitely be better signage at the north end of the "detour" such as, oh say, a "detour" sign. They have some orange arrows sprayed in the road in the general area of the detour, but they should add a sign directing you to go there instead of just putting up the sidewalk closed sign. Then they need some cones to communicate to everyone that they aren't going to be run over by oncoming northbound lower LSD traffic. But although it would have been nicer had our infrastructure not been crumbling, I give the city credit for *keeping the path open* and giving up the lane of automobile traffic. Within hours, the city removed the railing on the south end of the bridge to re-access the path and put down boards on the open grate bridge. The CDOT workers at the south end of the bridge were really pleasant and helpful last night in basically valet-ing my bike through the maintenance gate. However, better signage is definitely needed. This repair looks like it is going to take a while.

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Permalink Reply by Active Transportation Alliance on September 30, 2009 at 9:08am

We've posted an update from CDOT on our blog (includes photo): http://www.activetrans.org/blog/mkohara/update-lakefront-trail-repair

I've copied/pasted it below. Thanks, Ethan with Active Trans

All:

As you may be aware, CDOT is performing repairs to the east sidewalk of the Lake Shore Drive bridge, which serves as the Lakefront Trail. During this repair, the sidewalk is closed.

The Trail is using the easternmost lane of northbound LSD, which has been barricaded off solely for Trail users. To better accommodate walkers, joggers, bicyclists and inline skaters, CDOT has:

--placed fiberglass panels over the open-grate bridge deck to provide a smooth, uninterrupted surface
--placed temporary asphalt ramps to ease the transition from street to sidewalk at each end
--installed a metal guardrail to separate the temporary Trail from the traffic lane (this work should be finished by day's end.)

The attached photo shows the temporary Trail section on the bridge.

The sidewalk repair was necessitated by an incident around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. While moving the bridge to perform adjustment, a mechanical piece froze and a 10-foot section of the sidewalk broke off. We immediately began making accommodations for the Trail detour, and it reopened Tuesday afternoon.

We don't yet know how long the repair will take, but as soon as it's completed we will reopen the regular Trail.

Feel free to distribute this info, which we have posted on our web site.

Thank you,
Brian

Brian Steele
Chicago Department of Transportation

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Permalink Reply by Amanda W on September 30, 2009 at 9:19am

Wow, thanks for all of the updates! This site is great!

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Permalink Reply by dan brown on October 1, 2009 at 3:30am

I rode this today at 8 am - the panels are a nice improvement. and the temporary asphalt ramp too.

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