The Chainlink

Navy Pier flyover bridge project is crawling along, amid hazards for bicyclists and pedestrians

Bicyclist: “How can they build the Sears Tower faster than they can build this stupid flyover?”
The original section of the Great Wall of China went up in about 20 years. The 110-story Sears Tower was erected in only three years. So how long does it take to build a roughly 2,700-foot-long pedestrian bridge in Chicago?

In the heart of the city's lakefront trail system, slow progress and plenty of hazards and inconveniences mark spring for bicyclists, runners and pedestrians as crews begin the second year of a four-year project to construct a half-mile bridge for recreational users.

Construction will begin on an elevated pathway that is designed to alleviate congestion on the Lakefront Trail from south of the Chicago River bridge to Jane Addams Park just west of the Pier.

The approximately $60 million span, known as the Navy Pier Flyover, will rise above the ground from the Chicago River to Navy Pier. When completed in 2018, the 16-foot-wide bridge will eliminate close encounters between vehicles and nonmotorized traffic by permanently rerouting one of the most heavily used sections of the lakefront trail away from the lower-level sidewalk along the Lake Shore Drive bridge near Lake Point Tower. Bikers, pedestrians and others will no longer cross Grand Avenue and Illinois Street at street level.

For the full article go here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-lakefront-trail-ge...

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