Results tagged “departmentoftransportation”

Corruption in Chicago has evolved, according to federal hiring monitor Noelle Brennan. According to the annual report Brennan released yesterday, blatant abuses and manipulation of the hiring system in the city is no longer a problem. But patronage has moved to "more subtle types of manipulations of the hiring process." Brennan has been the hiring monitor since August of 2005, when federal prosecutors uncovered a fraudulent hiring scheme that led to Daley's former patronage chief Robert Sorich in prison being sentenced to 46 months in prison.

Using racist slurs and donning a tablecloth and pretending you're in the Klan won't get you fired from your City job. Joseph Annunzio, you're having the best, most inappropriate and offensive week ever! Congrats on retaining your $77K per year gig with the City's Department of Transportation. If the name "Annunzio" sounds familiar, it's because Joseph's uncle was 14-term Illinois Rep Frank Annunzio. The HR review board decided that Annunzio did make "racist, derogatory and...

Watch out, Chicago: Death is coming to town. Lest we sound a tad dramatic, let us clarify ourselves. Selected Independent Funeral Homes is having their 89th annual meeting this week at downtown’s Fairmont Hotel. Finally, a convention we can get excited about! Among the more interesting events to take place during the Oct. 14-17 summit are a discussion on the pros and cons of green burials (a movement that Chicagoist wholeheartedly supports), a banquet at...

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take...

As all of us watch the terrible news in Minnesota unfold, many state governments are starting to look at their own inventory of bridges. Illinois ranks in the middle of bridge condition when compared to other states, according to an AP article in The Daily Southtown, with around 10% of our bridges rated "structurally deficient" - slightly better than the national average of 12%. Yesterday Governor Rod Blagojevich ordered immediate inspections of high-volume bridges and...

The northbound Edens Expressway was closed for over seven hours yesterday when a semi truck carrying cooking oil, pigs feet and pig ears turned over, spilling across the three northbound lanes.

DuSable Park should have its own place in history as a figure of speech. Example: “Sure, I’ll call you back, when DuSable Park is finished”. DuSable was originally discussed in 1988. Wrigley got lights, the Bears lost to the 49ers in the NFC Championship, Daley was a year away from being mayor, and DuSable Park was only going to cost $1.2 million. Today, estimates put the completion of DuSable park at around $12 million,...

As March comes roaring in like a lion, our fearless leaders here in town and downstate have been doing some roaring of their own. Let's take a look back at some of the more noteworthy events thus far: Illinois' crappy reputation with elections is yielding news calls for an audit. State rep Mike Boland (D - Moline) has introduced an amendment to the election code requiring an election-night audit in each precinct in Illinois instead...

The Illinois Department of Transportation is still sticking to completion date for the Dan Ryan reconstruction project. Resuming heavy work on the project, the department has indicated that the ramp from the Skyway to the Dan Ryan local lanes will be closed until June. For those that can't take an alternate route, it's a little confusing. All Skyway traffic will be directed into the express lanes. If you normally exit at 59th Street, Garfield Boulevard, 47th Street or 43rd Street, you must exit the Skyway at State Street. Yeah, we say just don't take it.

The good news: Metra posted a single-year ridership record with approximately 80 million passengers. This was partly due to construction on the Dan Ryan, expanded rail service, and high gas prices. Amtrak also rang in with a 69 percent increase on expanded routes between Chicago and St. Louis, Carbondale and Quincy. The Chicago-to-St. Louis line showed a 95 percent increase in riders for last quarter over the same period last year. The news: The Regional...

The Indiana Department of Transportation says quit yer bellyachin'. The proposed "Illiana" expressway route will not be determined by evil, land-grabbing developers; it will be determined by a state environmental study.

If you are near a window of some type, then this isn't news to you; it's disgusting outside. Cold, snowy, windy — all the trademarks of our beloved Chicago winters. And not surprisingly, commutes of all types are screwed up. While there are many reasons to dump on the CTA, we hold the Pink Line above almost all others as evidence of why things need to change. Maybe the fact that it derailed this...

One provision of President Bush's proposed budget could affect Chicagoans and city-dwellers all over the country. Bush is proposing a "congestion initiative" that would award federal grants to cities and states for building toll systems that charge drivers new or increased tolls for traveling in and out of cities during peak times. Congestion pricing could take the form of "cordon tolls," charges to enter the city proper, or monthly/annual fees for using High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV)...

What's Going on with the North Avenue Bridge?

Architect Santiago Calatrava and developer Garrett Kelleher are making the rounds, looking to generate buzz for their newly redesigned Drill Bit on the Lake. The Chicago Spire (nee Calatrava Spire) as planned will be exceedingly thin and stand around 2,000 feet tall (160 stories): the Manute Bol of skyscrapers. When completed (or if, if you ask Donald “you’re fired” Trump), it could be the world’s tallest, eclipsing Taipei 101 and NYC’s planned Freedom Tower. The...

In today's Getting Around column, the Tribune's Jon Hilkevitch says that this spring, the city of Chicago will start sending officials posing as pedestrians to bust drivers who endanger walkers at intersections. The Department of Transportation and Office of Emergency Management will work with the police to conduct stings on reckless drivers, particularly those making right turns through crosswalks. On average, more than one pedestrian is killed in a traffic accident each week in the city. Mayor Daley has also created a Pedestrian Advisory Council and a Safe Streets for Chicago plan that will look to build more pedestrian-friendly intersections, coupled with a marketing campaign to promote pedestrian safety.

A man sleeps pleasantly inside his home. Suddenly a phalanx of backhoes rumble toward his property. The man, discombobulated and outraged, takes action and tries to block the machines the only way he knows how. No, the story we describe isn't the beginning of Hitchhiker's Guide, but it's just as surreal. On Friday morning, Monee resident Mark Baugh was awoken by his wife when a crew of Illinois Department of Transportation workers showed up at...

Chicagoist won't rehash the ol' "Two Seasons In Chicago" joke because it's tired and you all know it. There is some truth to it, of course, and if you're a regular driver on the city streets, as well as the surrounding expressways, construction is the bane of your existence. Hopefully, though, construction woes didn't cost any of you $3K in damage to your car as it did to West Dundee's Matt Wilkerson. In today's Getting...

Tuesday morning, the Chicago Department of Transportation discovered that some crafty thieves broke into the gears of a bridge at 24th and Halsted to strip away copper wiring. In an ironic name twist, spokesperson Brian Steele said that this was the first incident of its kind in many years. What Mr. Steele didn't mention was that scrap metal prices are currently at an all-time high. Bringing in the copper nets some Jacksons, not just pennies. But the vandals' (we're not sure stealing something counts as vandalism) scramble for cash will not entirely affect the bridge's ability to lift, thus ensuring the richy mcrichersons can get their yachts and sailboats to the harbors (hopefully *you* have one as a friend). Whew. That was a close one.

So far this week Chicagoist had an argument with our siblings over baseball, endured a date with a guy who isn't even registered to vote, forgot to set our alarm clock, thus making us late for a big meeting at work, fell down some stairs, and accidentally threw our favorite cashmere sweater into the dryer. And it's only Wednesday! Sigh. Even with all of that, our week is still not going as poorly as Governor...

A recent report from the state’s Auditor General says the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) hired inexperienced workers, did not fully utilize federal funding for safety projects, and mismanaged a reorganization of the agency in 2004. It goes on to criticize the hiring of two friends of Governor Blagojevich with histories of drunk driving into the department. Last month Blago’s longtime friend Dan Stefanski was quietly let go from his special assistant position after being...

If you rely on the Dan Ryan Expressway to get anywhere on a regular basis, we feel really sorry for you. Starting on April 1, the Illinois Department of Transportation will begin a major renovation of the roadway that is scheduled to last for nearly two years. The construction will modernize the Dan Ryan, which now handles twice as much traffic as it was originally built to handle, but in the meantime it will take...

On April 2, when we move our clocks forward one hour to adjust for Daylight Saving Time, two counties in Indiana, Starke and Pulaski, and six in the southwestern corner of the state won't do anything, just like they have done for years, effectively switching them from Eastern time to Central. But this time they'll stay for good.

The Illinois Department of Transportation launched a new web site called Getting Around Illinois on Thursday. It provides a wealth of traffic and road information, including directions, construction zones, which roads have been cleared during snow storms, and road services like rest stops and gas stations. Eventually they will even provide email and text message alerts about accidents and road closures. IDOT touts the site as one-stop shopping for transit data that previously had been...

The Blagojevich administration took another hit yesterday as it was served with a fourth round of subpoenas in a federal investigation regarding its hiring practices. The latest subpoena focuses on the personnel records of the Department of Corrections dating back to March of 2002 when squeaky clean George Ryan was still governor. This follows previous subpoenas seeking similar information from the Department of Children and Family Services and the Department of Transportation. There is...

The Blagojevich hiring scandal seems to get weirder by the day, and Chicagoist can practically picture Dick Mell reading the latest headlines and laughing. The Sun Times is reporting that a Blago official wore a wire as part of the federal investigation looking into the governor’s hiring practices. It is unknown which insider wore the recording device, or exactly who and what was recorded. A source also confirms federal investigators have interviewed several potential...

Not only has Journey’s Steve Perry been an inspiration to your World Champion White Sox, but now apparently Governor Blagojevich is taking a cue from the crooner’s sweet stylings. A federal investigation seeking to examine the hiring practices of Blago’s hiring practices is under way, and Blagojevich said yesterday that he welcomes the investigation because he has done nothing wrong, and wants to prove it to the good people of Illinois. In other words,...

The Chicago Department of Transportation has a program in which they will evenly split the cost to replace sidewalks in front of commercial or residential properties with the owners of the property.

At a press conference today, Police Superintendent Philip J. Cline released a report saying that of 244,309 traffic stops made by Chicago police in 2004, 176,500 of the individuals pulled over were minorities compared to 67,809 that were not minorities. That means that of all drivers Chicago police pulled over in 2004, 72% of them were minorities. Seems a bit unbalanced no? Chicago police officers participated in the traffic-stop survey to comply with legislation sponsored...

Who knew this was unofficial "Let's Speed Up Your Travel Times Week" in Chicago? First we got new CTA Go Lanes for privileged Chicago Card holders, and now this: transit peeps from the RTA and the Illinois Department of Transportation are joining forces to bring area commuters the fastest way to get from anywhere to anywhere. Sometime in the next year, Chicagoland commuters will have access to a comprehensive Web site that computes travel times...