All That Construction On Randolph Street In The Loop Is (Hopefully) Finished
By Rachel Cromidas in News on Dec 9, 2016 7:54PM
Randolph Street in the dark ages, before the protected bike lane was installed. Photo via Chicagoist Flickr Pool user Romeo Banias
The much-anticipated westbound Randolph Street bike lane has been open for a few weeks now, but the Chicago Department of Transportation just announced today that it has fully finished the construction its been doing on the street's Loop stretch for the better part of the year.
The projects included resurfacing parts of Randolph and Dearborn streets and giving Randolph a new protected bike lane between Michigan Avenue and Clinton Street and were intended to make using the road easier for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. The bike lane is set apart from traffic lanes with white plastic bollards and is painted green. Part of the Dearborn resurfacing was conducted by People's Gas, which is responsible for resurfacing streets after needing to cut into them to access underground utilities.
The westbound bike lane in particular has been a big boon for downtown cyclist commuters because the Loop has been short one westbound bike lane since the city removed Madison Street's westbound bike lane to make way for the new rapid transit Loop Link bus stations.
"We would like to thank everyone who uses the downtown transportation system for bearing with us during these last few busy construction seasons,” CDOT Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld. You're welcome, CDOT.
Randolph Street's reconstruction was designed to shorten pedestrian crossing distances, according to DCOT, and protect intersections with pedestrian refuge islands.