Steely Dan

this is a just a vent thread.

for over a decade now there's been a proposal to build a bike/ped bridge across the north shore channel on the far northside of chicago, to connect an MUP that jumps over the channel between lincoln and devon. right now, the only connection is to use the road bridges, which require some awkward loop arounds and/or challenging left-hand turns on busy 4 lane streets, at either end of where the proposed new bridge is supposed to go.

it was originally designed back in 2005, but the local alderman at the time opposed it for some (probably corrupt, greedy) reason, so the plans were shelved. then he was finally booted from office in 2014 and the new alderman promised to move forward with plans to build the bridge. that was 4 years ago. last fall it was announced that funding had been secured and that construction would commence in spring of 2018, but nothing happened.

and here we are now 6 months later in fall of 2018 and still nothing has happened. as this bridge would greatly ease my daily bike commute, i'm just beyond frustrated with how freaking long public works projects like this can take. they so often just seem to drag on for years and years. and if/when construction ever does finally begin on the bridge, it'll probably take them like 5 years to build a simple bike/ped span across a 75' wide channel and it'll probably cost something absurd like 25 million bucks.

uggghhhhh..... why? WHY?

why is it taking so long?

RubeRad

If you never paid attention to politics, you would never have been aware that the bridge was 'coming', and would not be frustrated. Well at least not growingly frustrated.

I am not aware of any bike infrastructure planned for my city/county, and I can't imagine how I would become aware

acidfast7

Lincoln, Devon, Channel

BobbyG

I grew up 3/4 of a mile northwest of Lincoln and Devon. I used to ride my Schwinn Stingray to Novelty Golf and to the Lincoln Village Shopping Center, as seen on the map. It was and still is a nasty intersection to ride and walk across.

BobbyG

I know this doesn't help you, but Lincolnwood just finnished one last month a few miles up Lincoln by where it crosses Touhy.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lincolnwood/news/ct-lwr-touhy-avenue-bridge-trail-tl-0920-story.html

fietsbob

Because its US of A, eh?

and you need to make more generous offerings
to the campaign re election deity.
city council/aldermen's and planning commision members..

how many public meetings have you attended and spoken up on this issue?





...

alan s 

Darth Lefty 

CliffordK

Follow up with your city council to make sure the new bridge hasn't been forgotten.

It is possible that they're working on the design phase, and implementation will begin shortly.

Or there were issues that had to be resolved such as land ownership.

I'm always happy to see dedicated bicycle bridges. We have a bunch of them here in Eugene that are very nice. Portland, the larger city, only has a couple (none over the Willamette of Columbia), in part due to the river becoming much wider up north.

Several of the Eugene area bike bridges were paid for due to carrying utilities (water, sewer, etc). The city decided to build a bike bridge whenever they needed to send a sewer line across the river.

RubeRad

Is that the movie where they couriered (muled) somebody else's suitcases, so they had to wear all of their own clothing layered up? And they tipped one waiter a dime and he slapped his boss and quit/retired?

rossiny

Very busy area . I used to work close by to there almost 12 years ago. I was amazed at traffic when I went back to do a job off Higgins and Central. On the positive , it seems like bike lanes are more and clearly marked off.. In a bike utopia , they would push public transit buses and phasing out cars.. maybe small buses and better trains ...but one can hope🙄

Darth Lefty 

It's been too long. They both sound like the sort of thing that would be in that movie

acidfast7

We find that the majority of the community needs to get involved for anything to get done.

Everyone in my city is focused on flood defenses and we're trying to steer everyone away from any kind out of auto traffic being allowed near the seaside and I believe that we'll achieve success. This is most via Facebook-based organisation and action where about 50% of all citizens from the borough are involved.

Here's what we're debating/consulting about cycling provisions, which I'm strongly involved within. Although, I will admit that we're very organised. They're about 3000 of us in the Facebook group and we all have roles ... scanning planning permission applications, actively protesting, meeting with the council members, which are also on the group (4 political parties that have different agendas as well.) But, if we don't get what we want, we're stuck with garbage for the next 100 years, so we must fight now to ban the autos near the sea.

preise

CDOT put it out for bid this summer so there is some, albeit slow, progress

pdlamb

If I learned anything from my first long bike tour, it's this:

You take what the road gives you.

no motor?

I had to go downtown earlier this week and was amazed to find the improvemnts they'd made with bike lanes and bike boxes there. But what happened to the bike messengers? They used to be all over the loop in the 80's, but I didn't see 1 then.

dedhed

You have to find out who is the entity bidding the project as this information is these days is usually readily available.
https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dps.html

What often happens in projects like this that have a long time between approval/design and bidding is the cost estimate is not updated, bids come in high, then either more funding needs to be found or design changes to reduce cost, and then a rebid.

Is this it? Lists a contract administrator contact
https://webapps1.cityofchicago.org/v...ction631519887

Jim from Boston

Waiting for bike infrastructureJust before replying to this thread, I posted to the affirmative side of this current thread on A&S, “I'd rather just not have a bike lane.” While not denying the utility of Bike Lanes, especiaily to avoid dangerous traffic (as opposed to convenience), I’m not going to wait for things to improve.

In response to this complaint about New England roads, I replied:

Quote:

Originally Posted by PatrickGSR94

I don't necessarily agree with everything in the article [quoted below], but for the most part it's pretty spot on. I use the full lane for my safety, period. Motorist convenience comes second. I try to accommodate motorist safe passing as much as possible, but I will not risk my own safety to do so.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2018/10/12/bicyclists-may-use-full-lane/#547141e924f8

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlton Reid in Forbes

Some motorists think roads were built for cars, and that people on bicycles are interlopers. Historically and legally, this is not the case: most global jurisdictions enshrine the right of bicyclists to enjoy the public highway – that is, to enjoy it in law if not always in reality. International traffic treaties also guarantee this basic right.

Some bicycle advocates like to remind motorists that they and their motor vehicles are allowed on the road only under license while cyclists are allowed on the road by right…

“Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia,” wrote the War of the Worlds author H.G. Wells in 1905. Many Dutch cities and even some North American ones, such as Vancouver, are getting close to such pedaling perfection but most other places lag far behind and cyclists can’t yet ride to every desired location on protected cycleways.

Instead, they often share roads with motorists who may feel that cyclists, if they are to be allowed on at all, should cling to the curb.

Korina

If it makes you feel any better, we had to wait 20 years for the Humboldt Bay Trail between Eureka and Arcata. The northern half is built, the southern half is built, but there's a four mile gap between cities that had to be worked out between state, county, and private land owners. It's in the funding stage, and with luck it'll be finished in 2022. There are currently three options to get between the cities, all of them unpleasant due to high speed traffic and two with narrow to nonexistent shoulders.

I hope you get your bridge sooner rather than later. And as others have said, you have to advocate for it.

no motor?

The Des Plaines River Trail is fairly close to me and there was a big gap in Des Plaines for years that made it hard for riders to go from the northern and southern sections. About 10 years ago they made a lot of improvements, but not at the part where the path crosses the railroad tracks. You're expected to dismount and carry your bike over the tracks (after checking for trains) to continue there. There are plans for an overpass there, but it still hasn't been built yet.

Steely Dan

thanks for the updates guys.

so, still more waiting. always and eternally waiting.

i'm gonna do a back flip the day i finally see an excavator show up on the site.

3speedslow

Steely Dan

well, well, well, i saw some potentially promising signs on my commute this morning.

i saw two McHugh Construction pick-ups parked on the grass and several guys in high-viz vests standing at the site of the proposed north shore channel bridge and pointing around at stuff. my guess is either McHugh got the contract for the bridge and are starting to plan out their mobilization, or the bid process is still open and McHugh was just doing a pre-bid site visits.

i sure hope it's the former!

i'm bursting with excitement! my bridge might finally be happening!

acidfast7

Cool man, take some photos of it going up.

BobbyG

Nice!

I just drove past there last month on a visit to see my folks who no. For old-time's sake we took the Edens Expy to Touhy, under the new ped/bike overpass by where the Purple Hyatt Hotel used to be in Lincolnwood, hopped on Lincoln, Ave and then down to Peterson, to Ridge to Hollywood to Lake Shore Drive and down to Northwestern Hospital just east of Michigan Ave, at Superior.

When I passed McCormick and Lincoln I thought of you and this thread.

The drive from my childhood home in Lincolnwood to the Loop is 10 miles (a safe bike route down the lakefront would be ~12). My bike commute here in Colorado Springs is 9 miles. That drive to the Loop growing up seemed soooo much longer. Maybe it's all the different neighborhoods we passed through.