LFP CAUTION! 9/30/11! Lots of Water!

Lakefront Path at Oak Street curve (just South of Oak Street Beach) has waves pushing up to the wall (as in, no getting around it).  Be careful.  I had water pushing up to the bottom of my frame for much of the curve.

At the time, it was still rideable.  If you decide to go that route, be patient.  My advice is to avoid and go to streets at Oak Street.

Also, just South of Fullerton, have to take the high path and was very crowded with runners and bikers and there was even standing water on the high path.

 

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Permalink Reply by Aaron Bussey on October 1, 2011 at 4:26am
Permalink Reply by Pete M on October 1, 2011 at 4:51am

I watched 2 guys longboarding at 63rd st beach.

Bitch of a wind blowing them down.

 

 

Permalink Reply by Pete M on October 1, 2011 at 5:04am

Here is a web page that shows pertinant weather information for that lake front area,

as well as a web cam.

http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/metdata/chi/

Permalink Reply by Bernard Joseph Hannigan on October 1, 2011 at 1:25pm
Ah yes, Darwin was at work on the LFP yesterday....CPD had the trail CLOSED...Darwin award nominees indeed!
Permalink Reply by Davo on October 1, 2011 at 3:57pm

I agree with you but apparently they need to do a better job of "closing" the trail at those points. Just saying that they are closed and putting up a few barracades are completely different.



Bernard Joseph Hannigan said:

Ah yes, Darwin was at work on the LFP yesterday....CPD had the trail CLOSED...Darwin award nominees indeed!
Permalink Reply by S on October 1, 2011 at 5:44pm
According to this, someone ended up in the water around there today and apparently drowned.  The rescue efforts were changed to recovery efforts by the CPD and CFD.  Hope he or she wasn't someone that got washed into the lake by an errant wave.
Permalink Reply by skipton on October 1, 2011 at 6:47pm
I rode down to Fullertion. Glad I got off the path there... pic is fuzzy cause the camera got splashed by a wave.
Permalink Reply by Jeremy on October 2, 2011 at 1:53pm

There was absolutely not any signage out there Friday AM.  Someone saying the path is "closed" in their office is very different from making it clear to anyone out there but I admit I spent the rest of the day kicking myself for staying on the path that morning. 

 

I usually wouldn't advocate taking a route not designed for bike sharing but the zoo parking lot and the paths around the North Ave softball fields is decent alternative to the lakefront path if you're heading south and things look rough starting at Fullerton.  You can take State or head over to Clark pretty easily from there.  Next time I see water washing over the path as I round the corner that's where I'm headed!

kiltedcelt said:

There was no indication that anything was closed along there. I rode that section at about 7:50 AM and there were a LOT of other people on the path in that area right at that time. Far too many for anything to have been closed. It certainly was hazardous enough to probably have been considered a public danger in which case if it really was to be closed, CPD should've had cops out in force in cars and with barricades to block all approaches to that section of the path. I've learned my lesson though and in future I can tell as I'm riding north what to expect up there. If I see that it's excessively choppy I'll just cut over at Grand and take the inner drive around that section. At that point, I'm practically at work anyway so a detour onto Grand/Inner Drive isn't likely to add much more than a couple minutes to my commute. The wave that hit me was strong enough to knock the speed sensor magnet of my new bike computer off.

 

Bernard Joseph Hannigan said:

Ah yes, Darwin was at work on the LFP yesterday....CPD had the trail CLOSED...Darwin award nominees indeed!
Permalink Reply by Carter O'Brien on October 3, 2011 at 3:20am

It's a question of horrible engineering, and why CPD/the City refuses to take responsibility for addressing it.

 

They didn't close the path until mid-morning Friday, it didn't look much worse when I got there at 730 than it does quite often during the year - if I turned around every time there was water washing up on the path there I'd be late to work on a regular basis.

Bernard Joseph Hannigan said:

Ah yes, Darwin was at work on the LFP yesterday....CPD had the trail CLOSED...Darwin award nominees indeed!
Permalink Reply by ad on October 3, 2011 at 4:03am

Not that you were necessarily going there Carter, but I've heard others lement the engineering of the path at this spot and suggest the City should do something engineering-wise to permanently fix this stretch.  I guess my question would be what can the City do besides shutting it down on days like this?  The stretch of the LFP that looked the most dangerous is already right up against LSD, so moving the path back further from the wall isn't an option.  So that basically means either elevating the path in some way, or building a breakwall in the lake to dampen the waves before they reach shore.  Either of those options would cost millions and are extremely unlikely to happen in the near future.

 

Now, I agree the City should do way more to get the word out earlier and close the path down when it's this dangerous.  With that said, though, it seems people were still going around the barricades even when attempts were made to shut the path down. 



Carter O'Brien said:

It's a question of horrible engineering, and why CPD/the City refuses to take responsibility for addressing it.

 

They didn't close the path until mid-morning Friday, it didn't look much worse when I got there at 730 than it does quite often during the year - if I turned around every time there was water washing up on the path there I'd be late to work on a regular basis.

Bernard Joseph Hannigan said:

Ah yes, Darwin was at work on the LFP yesterday....CPD had the trail CLOSED...Darwin award nominees indeed!
Permalink Reply by Carter O'Brien on October 3, 2011 at 4:18am

Ah, if we're talking about people ignoring barricades, that's a horse of a different color. 

 

Regarding the engineering, the no-brainer is for them to just ease up on the slope - I installed my own patio & I know what it takes to allow for water runoff and I can assure you there is no reason for that corner to have such a steep slope.

 

But even if it cost millions to fix it properly by elevating it or by putting a higher wall there it would be worth it.  Somebody IS going to drown if it isn't addressed, and given the amount of bike traffic on that stretch and how easily it gets iced over in the colder months, fixing it sooner rather than later is the smart way to go - and what did they just spend on that protected bike lane on Kinzie?  I'd guess that street gets 10% of the bike traffic the LFP does on a good day.
ad said:

Not that you were necessarily going there Carter, but I've heard others lement the engineering of the path at this spot and suggest the City should do something engineering-wise to permanently fix this stretch.  I guess my question would be what can the City do besides shutting it down on days like this?  The stretch of the LFP that looked the most dangerous is already right up against LSD, so moving the path back further from the wall isn't an option.  So that basically means either elevating the path in some way, or building a breakwall in the lake to dampen the waves before they reach shore.  Either of those options would cost millions and are extremely unlikely to happen in the near future.

 

Now, I agree the City should do way more to get the word out earlier and close the path down when it's this dangerous.  With that said, though, it seems people were still going around the barricades even when attempts were made to shut the path down. 



Carter O'Brien said:

It's a question of horrible engineering, and why CPD/the City refuses to take responsibility for addressing it.

 

They didn't close the path until mid-morning Friday, it didn't look much worse when I got there at 730 than it does quite often during the year - if I turned around every time there was water washing up on the path there I'd be late to work on a regular basis.

Bernard Joseph Hannigan said:

Ah yes, Darwin was at work on the LFP yesterday....CPD had the trail CLOSED...Darwin award nominees indeed!
Permalink Reply by ad on October 3, 2011 at 4:51am

I see what you're saying with the overly-steep slope, but keep in mind that when you have consistent 5 to 7 feet waves that means you are going to have rogue waves hitting the wall that are even higher.  I'm not a marine engineer, but I think it's fairly safe to say when you're talking about that amount of water just changing the slope isn't going to completely eliminate the danger.

 

In my opinion the best solution here would be to install permant flip-up barriers with signs warning of the danger on the path, similar to how train crossings work.  When waves are a real danger, lower the barriers and close that section of the path.  If people still chose to go around the barriers, I think the responsibility for the outcome largely falls on them at that point.  I know the path is a major commuting tool, but there are readily-available alternatives if people are adequately warned.          

Carter O'Brien said:

Ah, if we're talking about people ignoring barricades, that's a horse of a different color. 

 

Regarding the engineering, the no-brainer is for them to just ease up on the slope - I installed my own patio & I know what it takes to allow for water runoff and I can assure you there is no reason for that corner to have such a steep slope.

 

But even if it cost millions to fix it properly by elevating it or by putting a higher wall there it would be worth it.  Somebody IS going to drown if it isn't addressed, and given the amount of bike traffic on that stretch and how easily it gets iced over in the colder months, fixing it sooner rather than later is the smart way to go - and what did they just spend on that protected bike lane on Kinzie?  I'd guess that street gets 10% of the bike traffic the LFP does on a good day.
ad said:

Not that you were necessarily going there Carter, but I've heard others lement the engineering of the path at this spot and suggest the City should do something engineering-wise to permanently fix this stretch.  I guess my question would be what can the City do besides shutting it down on days like this?  The stretch of the LFP that looked the most dangerous is already right up against LSD, so moving the path back further from the wall isn't an option.  So that basically means either elevating the path in some way, or building a breakwall in the lake to dampen the waves before they reach shore.  Either of those options would cost millions and are extremely unlikely to happen in the near future.

 

Now, I agree the City should do way more to get the word out earlier and close the path down when it's this dangerous.  With that said, though, it seems people were still going around the barricades even when attempts were made to shut the path down. 



Carter O'Brien said:

It's a question of horrible engineering, and why CPD/the City refuses to take responsibility for addressing it.

 

They didn't close the path until mid-morning Friday, it didn't look much worse when I got there at 730 than it does quite often during the year - if I turned around every time there was water washing up on the path there I'd be late to work on a regular basis.

Bernard Joseph Hannigan said:

Ah yes, Darwin was at work on the LFP yesterday....CPD had the trail CLOSED...Darwin award nominees indeed!

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