UPDATED: Navy Pier Flyover Construction To Close Traffic Lanes As Crews Set Beams

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Jul 15, 2015 3:50PM

The mess of fences, dead-end pedestrian paths and vehicles that makes up the lakefront trail now known as Navy Pier Flyover construction site is getting a little dicier this week as the project moves forward.

The Chicago Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the $60 million construction project to vastly improve the stretch of lakefront trail that runs past Navy Pier for pedestrians and cyclists, has announced plans to close several lanes of traffic on and around Grand Avenue in the next week and several other lanes of traffic beginning in late July or early August.

UPDATE: Due to a delay in the delivery of the steel beams needed for the project, CDOT reps say the new closures will not likely begin until next week at the earliest, and could push back the schedules for other street closures.

The closures will take place over the next ten weeks or so, officials said in a press release, to allow crews to set steel beams that will serve as the elevated path’s steel spine once it is completed in 2018.

The main goal of the project is to create a seamless passage for trail users to connect from one side of Navy Pier and the other without hitting vehicle traffic or crowds of tourists. But in the meantime, the four-year project, which has been underway since spring of 2014, has created a congested slow-zone where pedestrians, cyclists, rollerbladers, lost tourists, buses and taxis must all jostle for limited space on the road.

This week's closures include:

• The closure of two westbound lanes between N. Streeter Drive and N. Lake Shore Drive.
• The eastbound lane for Lake Point Tower garage access and the southernmost westbound lane will be closed (access to the garage will be maintained).
• The island at the northeast corner of Grand and lower LSD will be closed and pedestrians will be routed to the south sidewalk of Grand.
• Intermittent night-time closures from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. (on Wednesday nights for Navy Pier Fireworks, the 10 p.m. closure time will be pushed back to accommodate exiting traffic)

And later this month, construction on Lake Shore Drive and near the Lake Point Tower will require the following lane closures, according to CDOT:

• The closure of the two lanes on upper northbound LSD on weekdays between Illinois and Grand from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• The east sidewalk of lower LSD will be closed and pedestrians will be detoured around Lake Point Tower and onto the west sidewalk of lower LSD.
• After the work on Grand is complete, the work over Illinois begins and will require:
• ​Illinois to be reduced to two lanes near the intersection of Illinois and lower LSD.
• Intermittent night-time closures from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

This construction is all part of the first phase of the project. The second phase, called the DuSable Segment because it crosses over DuSable Park, is slated to begin in the spring of 2016, and the third and final phase, the Lake Shore Drive Bridge Segment, will expand the width of the sidewalk of the existing bridge.