33 Years Later, Chicago’s DuSable Park Still Not Ready
If you thought this was going to be the year you could finally pack a picnic hamper with egg salad sandwiches, pull on your favorite sun bonnet, and head to DuSable Park to enjoy a warm spring afternoon in downtown Chicago, you’re as loopy as that lady who sits in the hobo corner on the Brown Line scat singing the Check Please theme music to herself. It’s been a third of a century since Mayor Harold Washington declared the...
Navy Pier Flyover Flies Into Phase Three
It’s a common refrain in the Midwest that there are two seasons: Winter, and Construction. But that’s not true in Chicago, where Construction Season is every season. It just. Never. Stops. Such are the perils of Paris on the Prairie, which you will witness first-hand if you use Lower North Lake Shore Drive. March 2014 drawing of the Navy Pier Flyover The Navy Pier Flyover enters its third phase of construction this...
Key Link in Navy Pier Flyover Unchanged, But Still Improved
Six months ago we showed you a picture of the Navy Pier Flyover as it nearly, almost, just about connected to the Lake Shore Drive Bridge. Four months later, Streeterville Spy Joel popped by to check on the construction progress, and… oh, wait… well, hmm… October 2019 Navy Pier Flyover construction (Courtesy of Streeterville Spy Joel) It’s exactly the same. The ramp that puts the “flyover” in the...
Navy Pier Flyover Almost Reaches Lake Shore Drive Bridge
It’s been a lot of years that cyclists, rollerbladers, walkers, people pushing prams, and just anyone who enjoys walking along Chicago’s lakefront have been waiting for the Navy Pier Flyover to be completed. While northern sections have been done and open to the public for some time, the key bottleneck in the whole lakefront parade — the Lake Shore Drive Bridge — is still a work in progress. Loop Spy Joel sent in these...
Navy Pier Flyover Now Flying Over DuSable Park
If you went downtown for the greening of the river last weekend, you may have wondered what’s the skinny on the Navy Pier Flyover. Well, dear shamrock shaker, things are moving along. Navy Pier Flyover under construction (Courtesy of Streeterville Spy Joel) Streeterville Spy Joel sent in the photograph above showing construction of the multi-purpose path’s spine going over DuSable Park. This is work on phase two of three...
Downtown Chicago’s DuSable Park Closer to Becoming a Reality
For decades people have looked at the verdant peninsula of land sandwiched between the Chicago River and Ogden Slip and wondered how such a prime location escaped development, and wouldn’t it make a simply lovely park? The answer to both questions is simple: Radiation. The four-acre plot, bounded on three sides by water and the fourth by Lake Shore Drive is officially known on city charts as “Jean Baptiste Pointe.”...
Navy Pier Bypass Looks Ready For Next Phase
It’s been almost exactly three years since CDOT embarked on a project few thought could be possible: A safe, dedicated, automobile-free method for non-motorized transportation across the mouth of the Chicago River. Construction began in March of 2014 on the lakefront bicycle and pedestrian bridge project that will eventually connect the Loop with both Navy Pier, and the northern stretches of the city’s lakefront trail. The...
31 Months In, Here’s What the Navy Pier Flyover Looks Like
From below, it still looks like segments of the bleached spine of a great sea monster washed up on the Chicago shoreline. But soon CDOT will finish assembling this serpentine collection of angles and curves into a new method of moving from north to south and south to north without setting dinosaurs on fire. The Navy Pier Flyover is well on its way to looking like the pedestrian, bicycle, Segway, pedicab, and...
Navy Pier Flyover Snakes Its Way Toward Completion
The serpentine bicycling, jogging, roller-blading, walking, and Segwaying path linking the north and south sides of the Chicago River near Navy Pier is making great strides. “Serpentine” is an apt description of the project as at this point, a good portion of it looks like the sinuous skeleton of a serpent, laid bare against the elements. Work continues to extend the metal rib cage toward Jane Addams park, while adding...
Status Update: Navy Pier Flyover Flying Along
Work on the Navy Pier Flyover continues in the Streeterville neighborhood, as the Chicago Department of Transportation’s project to ease congestion on the Lakefront Trail moves forward. This summer’s work has been marked not only by the changing infrastructure along the trail, but also by intermittent street closures on Grand, Illinois, and Lake Shore Drive. The $60 million project got underway last spring, and completion...
