New Solidarity Drive underpass to separate motor, foot and bike traffic
By Amy Rothblatt
Solidarity Drive, the thoroughfare east of Lake Shore Drive and across from Grant Park, serves motor, foot, and bicycle traffic within the Museum Campus and meanders through the park on Northerly Island. Although its lakefront location and landscaping with flowers and crabapple trees make it wonderfully scenic and hugely popular, the mix of pedestrians and bicycle riders with cars has raised concerns over safety and overcrowding.
Bob O'Neill, president of the Grant Park
Advisory Council/Grant Park Conservancy, said the City is addressing the
situation by “taking the bike path and the pedestrian path and putting
it underneath Solidarity Drive." The underpass "will be wider and much
more open-air then previous underpasses in Chicago. It's better for
people; it encourages them to walk, bike, get some exercise, and see the
city. This is a huge improvement from the dark, unsafe underpasses that
were built in the '60s, which were dirty, smelly, and dangerous. This is
the forerunner for the next generation of underpasses."
O'Neill likened the Solidarity Drive renovation to the one completed about five years ago at 11th Street and Columbus Drive that separates bikes and pedestrians from cars. He called it "a nice, wide, well landscaped underpass that goes from Michigan Avenue above railroad tracks and then goes under Columbus Drive, through Grant Park, under Lake Shore Drive, and to the Museum Campus." Compared to underpasses of the 1960s and ‘70s, "underpasses like these are designed to be much brighter, wider, and better landscaped and also well lit at night" and with good signage "designating that it is for bike and pedestrian use."
O'Neill noted construction should not affect summer bike and pedestrian traffic much. "There will still be a way to cross Solidarity Drive while the construction is taking place," he said.
O'Neill regrets that "a lot of trees had to come down in the process," but as with all construction projects involving tree removal, his group requested the trees be replaced. The new trees will start out shorter than the ones they are replacing, however.
"It's a decent compromise for the removal of older, larger trees," O'Neill said. "The planting of trees will be done at the completion of the project next spring, and we continue to follow through on that issue. Occasionally we even get more trees back in their place.
"People think that trees cost so much money, but the money is there," he continued. "Out of the huge transportation budget that the City has, which goes into roads, highways, and asphalt—we're talking about billions of dollars here—we should make sure that we can get a lot of trees with those transportation dollars."
He explained that the City grinds up the chopped-down trees into mulch, "so the wood goes back into the soil and it gets recycled."
With the Solidarity Drive project making the lakefront more accessible, O'Neill feels the City should make lakefront access near Buckingham Fountain a priority. About two years ago, the City eliminated pedestrian traffic across Lake Shore Drive between the fountain and the lakefront area known as Queen's Landing.
"They need to put either an underpass or an overpass there leading to the lakefront," O'Neill said. "We are looking for a corporate sponsor for this, as soon as possible. Truthfully, I am surprised that this wasn't funded before the construction at Solidarity Drive."
O'Neill said the Solidarity Drive underpass will be completed by spring 2009, “although the actual structure [of the walkway] is supposed to be done by the end of 2008. The other parts," such as landscaping, "will not be finished until the following spring."
His group wants to make "urban life more livable by providing a higher quality of life so that people will want to live in the downtown area and be able to walk and take public transportation to all of the destinations there. They should be able to benefit from the beauty of the lakefront and all of the cultural opportunities that are available downtown. It also is an environmentally friendly way to live, because living in the downtown area is the most efficient land use to avoid using the land space like 'suburban sprawl.'"
