CDOT Takes Another Crack at Upper Randolph

The Chicago Department of Transportation is going to once again try to straighten out the traffic mess that is East Upper Randolph Street.  The street, which climbs between Millennium Park and the Aon Center/Blue Cross/ Prudential Plaza streetwall is a nightmare for tourists and locals alike.

That's because whether looking at a map or just navigating on instinct, it makes perfect sense that Randolph would continue the city's street grid eastward from Michigan Avenue and connect with Lake Shore Drive.

Of course, it doesn't.

What it does do is make a blind 90-degree turn and come to a dead end in the heart of the New Eastside.

How confusing is this?  Well, on a warm summer afternoon there can be such a flood of confused suburban daytrippers that they actually cause their own traffic jam getting into, turning around, and getting back out of the dead end.

But you don't have to be an Okie from Muskogee to have trouble here.  I have a photo somewhere of an articulated CTA bus that got caught in this vehicular trap, and had to be yanked out with a tow truck.

To make things worse, this is no longer an industrial neighborhood.  There are several thousand people living there, and crossing the streets in their own backyard is becoming increasingly dangerous as more and more drivers unfamiliar with the neighborhood blow through the asymmetrical stop signs.

I used to live in the middle of this mess, and had a front-row view of it from my bedroom window.  Some days it was fascinating.  Others, not so much.

So, it was with some interest that I received an e-mail from Alderman Reilly's office recently detailing CDOT's plans for the area.  I'm going to paste Reilly's note, and the CDOT diagrams below.

Will the plan work?  Well, trying something is better than trying nothing.  But the problem is that this is a dead end.  There are only two ways to actually fix it:

1. Actually complete the long-studied, but very expensive, project to connect North Harbor Drive with East Upper Wacker Drive.  This has been promised by politicians for decades, but nothing has ever come of it.  
2. Put up some very large "Dead End" signs.  And by that I mean signs that actually read "DEAD END."  Not No Outlet, or Cul-de-Sac, or No Thru Traffic, or whatever the current politically correct version of "Dead End" is.  Hardly anyone knows what those mean, and no one takes them seriously.  "DEAD END" is universally understood and feared.  It's the one thing that will keep people out who don't want to go in there in the first place.

Here is Alderman Reilly's e-mail:

The upcoming improvements under this neighborhood initiative include:

New Bike Lanes on Upper Randolph between Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive:

At the Alderman's direction and expense through additional Menu funds, CDOT's bicycle program engineered a number of pavement marking improvements for Upper Randolph Street between Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive. These improvements include the extension of the eastbound bike lanes on the north side of Upper Randolph Street from Columbus Drive to just west of Stetson Avenue. Shared lanes were recently installed from the end of the old bike lanes down to Michigan Avenue.

On the south side of Upper Randolph Street, between Stetson Avenue and Columbus Drive, the existing eastbound bike lane has been relocated 8 feet off the curb line to keep school or charter buses servicing Millennium Park from parking in the bike lane. The warning signs have been installed in conjunction with the pavement marking recommendations.

Improvement to Intersection of Upper Randolph and Field Blvd:

The Alderman's office fields numerous reports of vehicles failing to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk in the east leg of the intersection at Upper Randolph and Field Boulevard.

This dangerous intersection will be "tightened-up" by shifting the crosswalk and stop line on the west approach approximately 35 feet to the east. This will improve driver compliance with the posted stop signs and encourage drivers to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk.

The City will also be installing new accessible pedestrian ramps, crosswalks and intersection pavement markings at this relocated crosswalk.

Improvement to Intersection of Upper Randolph and Harbor Drive:

Alderman Reilly also receives chronic complaints of vehicles that fail to yield to pedestrians at the intersection of Upper Randolph and Harbor Drive. This intersection will be reconfigured to include a painted median on the curve to provide a buffer between opposing travel lanes. The painted median will also provide an area for pedestrians to stand while waiting for a gap in oncoming traffic - and will encourage slower travel speeds through the narrowing of the adjacent travel lanes.

The City will also be installing additional warning signs to alert drivers to the approaching curve in the road and the presence of pedestrians crossing at the upcoming intersection.

Finally, CDOT recommends the removal of the stop sign and stop line for southbound traffic on Harbor Drive, because the intersection does not meet the necessary stop sign warrants and is inconsistent with the eastbound approach of Upper Randolph that has no stop sign.

There is a stop sign for southbound traffic on Harbor Drive - but eastbound traffic on Randolph is not required to stop at this corner. As a result, pedestrians gain a false sense of security that vehicles will stop at the crosswalk. The Alderman has introduced an ordinance to repeal this stop sign to improve pedestrian safety at the intersection of Randolph and Harbor Drive.

These improvements are scheduled to begin on October 18th and the project is expected to last for 8 weeks. Alderman Reilly is very pleased to announce this exciting project, which will finally address the many complaints we receive regarding traffic and pedestrian safety in the New Eastside community.

Here are the CDOT schematics and plans.  As always, click the pics for larger versions:

Video: Review of the New Dusable Harbor Boathouse

On the first warm day of 2009 I found myself wandering around the New East Side.  It's the location of the last place I lived, The Shoreham, and a dozen other high rises along the lakefront.  Wandering toward the water I was struck by something new -- a new boathouse at Dusable Harbor (401 North Lake Shore Drive).

When I lived in Lakeshore East, this was where a dank funk would roll out from beneath Lake Shore Drive and tumble into the welcoming waters of Lake Michigan.  That's not what I found in 2009, though.  The little area had been completely fixed up, with the previously mentioned boathouse, and a new bridge to keep Loop-bourne joggers from becoming unwillingly merged with speeding cyclists on the lakefront path.

Last night WTTW ran a piece on the new boathouse that we mentioned back in June.  It's a nice look at how great architecture can come in very small packages.

Nubbin Watch

The Chicago Tribune has a brief piece today about the WDRV transmitter on top of the Aon Center.  When the new antenna was installed on May 31, 2009 we Tweeted about it, and posted a picture of the installation.  I'm re-posting the picture here for those who missed it.

For numbers junkies, the new antenna is 1,214 feet above ground level.

Some people don't like the new nubbin because it ruins the perceived flat top of the Aon Center.  Those of us who can see Aon's roof have always known it was anything but flat.  But I can understand why people may not like it.  It's a pretty big change.  The only thing that bothers me about it, though, is that it's not centered so it looks a little weird.

Status Update: Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower

You can't call it "complete" yet, but "topped out" seems appropriate for the vertical expansion of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower fronting Millennium Park.  If you get our Twitter feed, you were alerted a while back when the eastern crane was taken off the building.  Now it looks like most of the structural work is done and we can finally start calling this building 57 stories instead of 32.

The vertical expansion is an unusual thing to see, even though there are several buildings in downtown Chicago and the Loop that were intentionally designed to be extended in height later.  Some of them are even from the 1800's.

Millions of tourists must be right

It's something of a burden to bear.  For the thousands of people who live in the New East Side not a day passes without hundreds, sometimes thousands, of tourists wandering their streets asking how to get to the lakefront and Navy Pier.

Long lines of cars snake into, and then back out of, the cul-de-sacs and private driveways of the New East Side as legions of tourists ignore the few tattered signs put up to direct them.  Once an articulated CTA bus got stuck back there and it took the better part of 12 hours to get it turned around.

The opening of Millennium Park only made things worse.  After all -- it only makes sense that the city's front lawn would connect to the lake and eventually on to Navy Pier.  But more than once I have seen a frustrated tourist raise an angry fist to a local when told, "you can't get there from here."

Well, some day maybe they can.

With the impending destruction of Daley Bicentennial Plaza to make way for the new Chicago Children's Museum, there are finally some serious talks about linking the parks and the lakefront in that area. it cost $20 million to do the same thing at 11th Street.  How much it will take farther north remains to be seen.  But a committee is starting work on it, and maybe there will be some logical relief soon.

Still waiting to be delighted

Is anyone delighted yet with the progress on the Mandarin Oriental Chicago?  Anyone?  Beuller?  We didn't think so.



After years of waiting, and staring at signs of promise, this is all we have to show for what was supposed to be a new showcase hotel in the heart of Michigan Avenue:

It's just an empty lot.  Not even surface parking; just a lot.  The surface parking operation that was there got kicked out in favor of... nothing.



We know these are hard times, but somehow thousands of other skyscrapers are going up in cities around the world suffering through worse economic times than Chicago.



There is a little hope, though -- there is a very swish Mandarin Oriental sales office in Two Prudential Plaza that seems to still be active.  Let's hope it's a lot busier than it looks.