Who cares for the LFT???

As a daily bike commuter on the lakefront path on and off for years, I've often felt insulted by how long serious life-threatening surface condition problems are allowed to persist.  It feels like despite tens of thousands of daily users, we're just those little cyclist people.  Meanwhile just a fence-width away on lakeshore drive such dangers would never be left to fester so.

This year in particular though the problems are so egregious and dangerous, some now months old, I felt something had to be said.

I've tried the 311 app for several problems such as a specific huge pothole, and a boulder on the path (too large for one person to move, a construction crew left it there), and gotten "the problem has been resolved" messages back a few days later, with nothing actually done.  The boulder one I even resubmitted, and got the same reply again, though it's still there.

I figured next step is contact the appropriate agency directly, but not sure who that is.

Can perhaps an Active Trans rep followup and pester the city on behalf of this lifetime members?

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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on March 24, 2016 at 8:33am

That's great news. Chainlink received a few tweets from the Park District as well. 

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on March 24, 2016 at 9:09am

YAY! Under six days.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on March 25, 2016 at 7:39am

Eeeeeep!  The lamppost is gone, but abruptly the "widowmaker" at the Oak St bend just got way way worse.  More huge chunks of pavement have peeled off, which crews then shoveled onto the path (because somehow that makes sense???).  Interestingly the pavement UNDER the peeled off asphalt looks reasonably intact and smooth.

Permalink Reply by Josh L. on March 25, 2016 at 3:57pm

Did you all hit the three new sand traps there this am?  I didn't bike home on the LFT but there were three times this am I had to dismount and walk it.  Not the end of the world but it does break up a nice ride.  And yes I did notice that the Oak curve is approaching the surface of the moon in terms of it's terrain.

Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on March 25, 2016 at 10:01pm

Yep, there were at least 3 sand traps near Fullerton. Not a huge fan of sand in the sprockets and chain.

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on March 25, 2016 at 11:39pm
Are we complaining about Chicago Park District still, or Mother Nature? It was windy yesterday. The wind was blowing from the lake. Sand happens. CPD gets that stiff cleaned up pretty quickly. Here today, gone tomorrow.
Permalink Reply by Josh L. on March 26, 2016 at 4:32am

Well said Skip.  I think that with the rising lake levels and El Nino as the new normal they will need to think about a breakwall on the Fullterton to North stretch.

Permalink Reply by S on March 26, 2016 at 8:17am

A breakwall would be great but that's a pretty huge project.  Especially right after they did the infill and landscaping around fullerton.  I think they've talked about fixing things around the oak st curve but that's also another big project that'll have to wait for the LSD reengineering/upgrades.

Permalink Reply by curt(is) locke on March 29, 2016 at 2:51am

El Nino as the "new normal"?? El Nino is a cyclic event that predates climate change. "Rising lake levels" today, but just 3 years ago we were facing record historic LOW lake levels. The current levels are hardly the "new normal." I well remember similar high levels back in the 1980s. I've watched this lake rise and fall repeatedly in my 30 years along its shores.

Permalink Reply by S on March 26, 2016 at 8:15am

That's off to the side of the path if you go by the painted lines.  I'm not sure what you want the park district to do here, leave the chunks all over the path?  Shovel everything into the lake and pretend nothing happened?  It seems like the CPD did a pretty good job of getting all the chunks of asphalt off the path and leaving a clear route until they can get a truck or two to pick up the chunks and haul it off.  

I'm not sure how often you use the path but the park district has always done a pretty good job of clearing things up and making sure the path is usable most of the winter even though there aren't that many users during those times.

Permalink Reply by Mark on March 29, 2016 at 10:41am

This week I have noticed a lot of orange markings on the pavement up and down the north LFT.  It looks like preparations are being made for replacing sections of pavement along the shore and farther north as well.  The Park District has done a good job of upgrading pavement each Spring.  These repairs are always completed by Memorial Day weekend.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bedno on April 4, 2016 at 3:07pm

Following up two weeks later, results are poor.

1. The streetlight was removed, a week to the day after it landed on the path.

2. The pothole at LFT and Goethe is still there, big and mean and growing.  However the 311 system reports it was patched in a week.  >:

3. The report of the gaping missing patches of asphalt at LFT Oak St bend appears to have simply been deleted.  Meanwhile further erosion is revealing older under pavement. The lanes closer to the lake are fine, mainly just this layer is flaking.

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