LFP Damaged in yesterday's storm

Thought this should be posted before Monday's commute

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Permalink Reply by Joe Guzzardo on November 1, 2014 at 7:51am

Wow! 

I took a 147 express bus home yesterday evening. The trip from downtown to home was about 2.5 hours. There were waves crashing across the outer drive. My biggest concern in the winter is the bend along the LFP at Oak Street. But now I'm beginning to wonder if we will have much of anything left south of Fullerton. Winter hasn't even started yet. This is very ominous. 

Permalink Reply by Eric R on November 1, 2014 at 8:06am
Wow indeed. Where was the photo taken?
Permalink Reply by Josh L. on November 1, 2014 at 8:37am

My God.  I have biked through  that part just after huge  waves came through but I had no idea that the waves could be so powerful do dislodge a paved surface. Quite dramatic. I'll have to bike this this afternoon.

Permalink Reply by Jared on November 1, 2014 at 8:42am

All they did was slap asphalt in concrete.  It doesn't really surprise me that waves would cause it to slide off like that.

Permalink Reply by Joe Guzzardo on November 1, 2014 at 9:32am

Y'know, I see cameras at several points along the bike path around there. I wish they could hook them up to a web feed and give us some real time display on conditions along the bike path. There's been talk about rebuilding the outer drive for a few years now, probably a multi billion dollar project. We could do this for relative chump change.

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on November 1, 2014 at 11:20am

And that's the nice part.  Just south of Fullerton the trail's under two feet of sand.  Last night I had to ride on the single track that is next to Lake Shore Drive.  The choke point at Navy Pier is trashed, too.

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on November 1, 2014 at 11:45am

Just south of Fullerton:

The stretch being filmed last night:

South of Oak Street.  A few hundred feet of asphalt has been stripped away:

Permalink Reply by skyrefuge on November 1, 2014 at 11:57am

And here's the section looking south from just south of Fullerton, at 5pm on Saturday:

It looked completely covered-over in sand as far as I could see from there.

Between Fullerton and this photo there was another section where the pavement washed away, though not nearly as big of an area as the photo in the OP. And due to dumb luck, they have just paved the winter dirt-path bypass next to that section in preparation for the Fullerton revetment project, so that washed-away section can be easily bypassed. Too bad that's ultimately useless since the sand covers the trail 100 ft. after the bypass rejoins the main trail.

Permalink Reply by Joe Guzzardo on November 1, 2014 at 3:27pm

I'm hoping the Chicago Park District crews will soon get the sand moved back where it belongs but I'm really concerned about the stripped away asphalt. I will probably make a test run tomorrow. Thanks to you and Tricolor for the useful pics.

skyrefuge said:

And here's the section looking south from just south of Fullerton, at 5pm on Saturday:

It looked completely covered-over in sand as far as I could see from there.

Between Fullerton and this photo there was another section where the pavement washed away, though not nearly as big of an area as the photo in the OP. And due to dumb luck, they have just paved the winter dirt-path bypass next to that section in preparation for the Fullerton revetment project, so that washed-away section can be easily bypassed. Too bad that's ultimately useless since the sand covers the trail 100 ft. after the bypass rejoins the main trail.

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on November 2, 2014 at 1:54am

On Friday night that upper path was getting hit by occasional waves, too.  I really thought it was going to be destroyed as well, since all the gravel around the base was being washed away.

The sand is the biggest issue; people can get on/off the trail at North Ave, but Fullerton's a bit too far north.

Permalink Reply by Haddon on November 2, 2014 at 2:36am

Permalink Reply by Craig S. on November 2, 2014 at 7:53am

Yeah, well, I don't hold out much hope for this. I've lived in Chicago since 1990. I think this summer was the worst I've seen the LFP as far as conditions go. Sand dunes all over the path from Fullerton to North Ave, potholes, just extremely disappointing. I guess Mayor Rahm has his donors to repay and other priorities.

Joe Guzzardo said:

I'm hoping the Chicago Park District crews will soon get the sand moved back where it belongs but I'm really concerned about the stripped away asphalt. I will probably make a test run tomorrow. Thanks to you and Tricolor for the useful pics.

skyrefuge said:

And here's the section looking south from just south of Fullerton, at 5pm on Saturday:

It looked completely covered-over in sand as far as I could see from there.

Between Fullerton and this photo there was another section where the pavement washed away, though not nearly as big of an area as the photo in the OP. And due to dumb luck, they have just paved the winter dirt-path bypass next to that section in preparation for the Fullerton revetment project, so that washed-away section can be easily bypassed. Too bad that's ultimately useless since the sand covers the trail 100 ft. after the bypass rejoins the main trail.

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