Damen Avenue bridge history

Does anyone remember when the Damen Avenue bridge was rebuilt/replaced in 1999-2000? This is the bridge over the North Branch Chicago River between Fullerton and Diversey.

My questions:
1. When it was opened, did it have 4 lanes?
2. When was it reconfigured to have 2 lanes and 2 bike lanes?
3. Why?

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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on October 29, 2010 at 6:06pm


H3N3 said:
I remember it reopening and taking a spin on it within a day or two on some cold weather group ride-- but can't remember the lane situation.
If you're thinking about the North Ave. bridge, I think your answer to why we're stuck with the current failure may have something to do with it being under some other jurisdiction because it's part of route 64.
But that info was from someone from city planning as I recall, so you probably know that . . .
I'm not thinking of North Avenue. I know more of the story behind that bridge's lack of bikeways.

If you look at the roadway of Damen on the bridge, you can see that pavement striping was ground out so the roadway could have a different lane setup (you can see in Google Street View). Also this document from July 2000 tells that there were "two traffic lanes in each direction."
Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on October 29, 2010 at 6:53pm


H3N3 said:
Here ya go, on #2 at least-- first commented on October 12 2004.

Anne Alt: Yessss!!!! Very welcome news. I'd think that Nick Jackson would know who's responsible. Perhaps he's the one we should be thanking. nick@biketraffic.org
>
> I'm not generally a big fan of bike lanes, but this one is a huge plus
> to that scary bridge.
> Who is to thank?
> ho'ard
>
>
> > Just the other day I noticed new bike lanes on the Damen Ave Bridge
> between Elston and Clybourn. I was happy as this is one of my main
> routes home. I always take but until now I was always leary of it. Now
> if only the would get around to the rest of Damen.
> > (Brendan Idarius)

Awesome. So now there's somewhat of a timeline for the change.
Permalink Reply by T.C. O'Rourke on October 30, 2010 at 8:38am
This is arguably the best roadway improvement the CDOT Bike Program has ever made.
Permalink Reply by Duppie on October 30, 2010 at 9:31am
Steven,
I enjoy reading your blog and you seem well-versed in urban planning.

Not sure if this explains the why, but I do remember going to a meeting about the Lawrence Ave streetscape redesign where the project manager from CDOT mentioned that USDOT no longer recommends 4 lane roads in an urban setting.

They plan to make Lawrence avenue into a two lane (plus turn lane) from the current four lanes. Part of the explanation was that lawrence west of Western and East of Ashland(?) already is a 2 lane street. The same can be said for Damen, which is a largely a 2-lane street
Permalink Reply by Davo on October 30, 2010 at 9:45pm
My pipe dream is for the Damen Elston Fullerton intersection to be a round about. Carns always blosk up the lanes there and have no where to go when the light changes. I cant count the number of times that I have had to weave through that bs
Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on October 30, 2010 at 10:49pm


Davo said:
My pipe dream is for the Damen Elston Fullerton intersection to be a round about. Carns always blosk up the lanes there and have no where to go when the light changes. I cant count the number of times that I have had to weave through that bs

CDOT has a plan for this intersection. The plan is to remove Elston from the intersection and have Elston go around it at a right angle hundreds of feet away. It's a difficult plan because the City will have to buy others' property.
Permalink Reply by T.C. O'Rourke on October 31, 2010 at 4:40am
So they're no longer going to tunnel Fullerton? Good.

I can't imagine the land acquisition would be cheaper, but burying it would speed up travel times (bad) and be a nightmare (more so) for those riding a bike on Fullerton.
Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on October 31, 2010 at 5:27am
I remember riding the Damen bridge when it first opened. The fact that it had 4 traffic lanes was the reason for my quoted comment about "hostile traffic." Drivers coming from the surrounding congested 2-lane streets tended to go as fast as possible over the bridge. Many of them still do, but they tend to respect the bike lanes.

Regarding Howard's note on the width of Damen overall, there are notable chunks that are wider than 2 lanes, but most of Damen's length throughout the city has 2 traffic lanes.

Howard to Diversey (with interruptions) - 2 lanes
Diversey to Fullerton (bridge) - now 2 lanes plus bike lanes
Fullerton to Washington - 2 lanes
Washington to 18th - wider, as described below
18th to Coulter - 2 wide lanes
Coulter to Archer - 3 to 6 lanes
Archer to 37th - 2 wide lanes
37th to Pershing - 4 lanes, divided
south of 47th to 101st (with interruptions) - 2 lanes with occasional center turn lane
Damen ends at 101st.


H3N3 said:
I disagree that Damen is "largely a 2-lane street".
There are at least 4 sections of it I would use if they weren't deadly urban hells:
1) The stretch by the United Center. "Improved" from two wide lanes with parking (about like most of Lincoln Ave.) to four narrow lanes around '94.
2) The stretch of Damen crossing 290-- 6 or 7 lanes across and fast traffic cris-crossing all directions.
3) The tunnel roughly from 14th to 16th. I only -marginally- feel safe at night-- in the daytime a driver coming up on you from behind wouldn't be able to see you in front of them =at all= until their eyes adjusted-- at least 1/2 a block.
4) The recently "improved" section crossing 55. Urban nightmare hell death trap. Even the sidewalks are almost unrideable because of the bizarre angles the deep curb ramps jut off at.


Duppie said:
Steven,
I enjoy reading your blog and you seem well-versed in urban planning.

Not sure if this explains the why, but I do remember going to a meeting about the Lawrence Ave streetscape redesign where the project manager from CDOT mentioned that USDOT no longer recommends 4 lane roads in an urban setting.

They plan to make Lawrence avenue into a two lane (plus turn lane) from the current four lanes. Part of the explanation was that lawrence west of Western and East of Ashland(?) already is a 2 lane street. The same can be said for Damen, which is a largely a 2-lane street
Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on November 3, 2010 at 1:10am
I would love to see some documentation from the U.S. DOT about their stance against widening urban roads. Can anyone help?


Duppie said:
Steven,
I enjoy reading your blog and you seem well-versed in urban planning.

Not sure if this explains the why, but I do remember going to a meeting about the Lawrence Ave streetscape redesign where the project manager from CDOT mentioned that USDOT no longer recommends 4 lane roads in an urban setting.

They plan to make Lawrence avenue into a two lane (plus turn lane) from the current four lanes. Part of the explanation was that lawrence west of Western and East of Ashland(?) already is a 2 lane street. The same can be said for Damen, which is a largely a 2-lane street
Permalink Reply by Gin on November 3, 2010 at 4:33am
I have dim memories of advocacy around this bridge. . . .come on brain! TC might remember.

What I want to know is why the North ave bridge over the river, built later, has no bike lanes. Why are arterials important to cyclists?? They are often the only access across key barriers like rivers and highways and to major commercial destinations.

The street network *is* the bikeways network.
Permalink Reply by Gin on November 3, 2010 at 8:42am
Weird--when I saw this this morning, none of the other replies were visible. OK--my memory has been jogged ;-)

Gin said:
I have dim memories of advocacy around this bridge. . . .come on brain! TC might remember.

What I want to know is why the North ave bridge over the river, built later, has no bike lanes. Why are arterials important to cyclists?? They are often the only access across key barriers like rivers and highways and to major commercial destinations.

The street network *is* the bikeways network.
Permalink Reply by Davo on November 3, 2010 at 10:57am
There is all that space on the Vienna Beef plant side.



Steven Vance said:


Davo said:
My pipe dream is for the Damen Elston Fullerton intersection to be a round about. Carns always blosk up the lanes there and have no where to go when the light changes. I cant count the number of times that I have had to weave through that bs

CDOT has a plan for this intersection. The plan is to remove Elston from the intersection and have Elston go around it at a right angle hundreds of feet away. It's a difficult plan because the City will have to buy others' property.

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