The new workhorses

03/01/2010 1:21 PM

By Micah Maidenberg
Editor

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Outbound alternative routes. Courtesy IDOT.



Inbound alternative routes.

Several arterial streets cutting through Near South and Near West neighborhoods will serve as alternative routes for drivers during a series of road repair projects expected to start this spring.
In April, the city and state departments of transportation will begin repaving the Eisenhower Expressway and reconstruction of the bridges that cross it; reconstruction of Wacker Drive; rehabilitation of the Congress Parkway Bridge; and installation of a new traffic and design scheme on Congress itself.
The road work means there will be fewer lanes to handle the daily rush of traffic - between 185,000 and 210,000 cars on the Eisenhower daily, according to IDOT, and 60,000 daily on Wacker.
Consider the Congress Parkway Bridge over the Chicago River. During its rehab, only two eastbound lanes between Canal and Wells – and one westbound lane – will be open.
The Eisenhower will be down to two lanes in each direction during repair of the bridges that cross it. And Wacker Drive will be reduced to one lane in each direction.
A key alternative, according to maps (click for inbound and outbound) the Illinois Department of Transportation posted to its Web site, will be Roosevelt Road, between Sacramento on the west and Michigan on the east.
IDOT has also selected an Adams-to-Ogden stretch for drivers heading outbound, while those driving into the Loop will be directed to cut through the Nest West Side and West Loop on Warren, a boulevard that turns into Washington east of Ashland.
Michigan Avenue, between Washington and Roosevelt, will serve as a connector on the east to the alternative routes.
Residents of the 2nd Ward and adjacent areas will hear a lot more about the road projects tomorrow night at a meeting Ald. Robert Fioretti is sponsoring at Robert Morris University. Representatives from IDOT and the Chicago Department of Transportation will be on hand.
The meeting starts at 6 p.m. in room 803 of the Robert Morris's 401 S. State building.


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