This page shows news articles related to specific greenways and communities.
All News Clips
| Back to List | |
| Chicago Riverwalk extension to begin in July | |
| Apr 27, 2008 | |
| Jon Hilkevitch jhilkevitch@tribune.com | |
| Chicago Tribune | |
| Pertains to Chicago Riverwalk, Chicago | |
| Chicagoans have a vital connection to the waterfront, whether it is the shoreline of Lake Michigan or the banks of the Chicago River. That link will become stronger—and longer—by the end of the year when the riverwalk trail downtown is extended. Construction is scheduled to begin in July to literally bridge the riverwalk beyond the Wabash Avenue bridge to State Street. It's an intermediary step toward eventually extending the riverwalk promenade west to Lake Street along the south bank of the river, according to the Chicago Department of Transportation. About five outdoor cafes that appeared for the first time last summer on the riverwalk since the reconstruction of Wacker Drive in 2001 and 2002 will be back again this year, along with a bicycle rental vendor and arts and crafts offerings, officials said. The Daley administration's long-term goal is to transform the venue into a major tourist attraction, similar to the riverwalk in San Antonio, where restaurants, bars and shops flourish. Officials have abandoned plans to introduce floating river barges featuring roving musicians and other entertainers. "We have to keep the river navigable to boat traffic," said Michelle Woods, a CDOT engineer who is the riverwalk project manager. "Too much of a build-out means we don't have a nice wide river anymore, but a trickling stream." Already a favorite of joggers, walkers and bicyclists—but a gem of a trail yet to be trekked by most people who work and play downtown—the riverwalk runs uninterrupted from the lakefront to Michigan Avenue, running parallel to Lower Wacker Drive. From Michigan, riverwalk users must climb the stairs at the Michigan Avenue bridge, cross over to the west side of the street and descend another staircase to rejoin the riverwalk path. The exercise must be repeated at Wabash. The work set for this summer will involve building pedestrian "under-bridges" that will run the width of the Michigan and Wabash bridges above. The under-bridges will jut out slightly from the riverbank to provide a continuous riverwalk path. The Michigan under-bridge will be built first. The Wabash under-bridge will be three feet wider than the 17-foot-wide under-bridge at Michigan in order to extend the riverwalk beyond the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Wabash Plaza and continue the pathway to State Street, Woods said. Year's end is the completion date for both under-bridges. The under-bridges will be covered by stainless steel canopies to prevent trash, dirt or anything else from raining down on the people below street level. That's good news to anyone who recalls a 2004 incident in which human waste from a toilet was dumped from the Dave Matthews Band bus onto people on a tour boat traveling under the Kinzie Street bridge. "It will be a nice wide walkway, accessible to people with disabilities and very open so people don't feel claustrophobic," Woods said. "The project is very exciting because it opens up opportunities for so many more people to get down to the river level," she added. A cabled railing will run along the border of the riverwalk. "It will be a thin cable, enough to prevent people from falling through, but from a distance it will give the sense of nothing interfering between the riverwalk and the water," Woods said. In addition, Shoreline Water Taxi plans to create a new stop on the river between Franklin and Wells Streets, she said. The total cost of the two under-bridges is estimated at $8 million to $10 million, according to CDOT. The city will open the bids it has received this week, said CDOT spokesman Brian Steele. The city has not yet secured the federal funding needed to complete the entire riverwalk. The current under-bridge project will be paid for out of the central Loop area tax-increment financing district, officials said. Part of future financing might involve commercial naming rights. A riverwalk development committee, a public-private partnership created by Mayor Richard Daley, is investigating options, officials said. |
»»»»»
Greenway Trails
» » »Existing
» » »Project
» » »Potential
Greenway Maps
» » »by Agency
» » »by Scope
Community Systems
» » »Active
» » »Typical
» » »Sedentary
» » »Dead-end
Grade Separations
» » »Existing
» » »Needed
Trail Development
» » »News
» » »Events
Greenway Advocacy Materials
Bicycle Underpass/Overpass Gallery
About Greenway Planning Database
About Steve Breese
PalatineRoad.com
Contact Steve Breese
Greenway Links
ArlingtonTrotters.com
Fast Track Racing Team
COGO
Technical Corner