DuSable Lake Shore Drive redesign would bring greenery and S-curve relief, but no bus lanes

A new North DuSable Lake Shore Drive could eliminate the traffic light at Chicago Avenue, straighten another famous S-curve and add 80 acres of parkland by building toward Lake Michigan.

A $3.4 billion design was unveiled Thursday at the fifth and final open house for the Redefine the Drive project, launched 11 years ago by the Chicago and Illinois departments of transportation to revamp the aging lakeside highway.

But not everyone was happy with the plan to overhaul the 7-mile stretch of highway from Grand Avenue to Hollywood Boulevard.

More than 100 critics gathered outside the meeting at Truman College to protest the plan because it did not include a dedicated bus lane or other options for car traffic.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Last month, planners said they would likely choose the most car-focused option, called the “essential” plan, which did not include dedicated bus lanes along the entire highway.

This was a failure for the protesters, who included several City Council members and state Sen. Robert Peters.

“This is a unique opportunity for the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois to literally create, build and reimagine a different future,” Councilwoman Maria Hadden (49th Ward) told the crowd. “We need to see bus rapid transit lanes at a minimum.”

At the open house, city transportation officials said a new DLSD does not need dedicated bus lanes to achieve the project’s overall goals of increasing safety and moving traffic faster.

The “essential” design speeds bus traffic by adding shorter bus-only lanes to ramps along DLSD, rather than the entire roadway as would be done in the other plans that were not chosen, said Jeff Sriver, director of transportation planning for the Chicago Department of Transportation.

North DuSable Lake Shore Drive Phase 1 Study

Planners studied how people use the DLSD and found that improving express bus service did not attract more riders, Sriver said. Bus riders typically lived near the lake, while drivers often come from areas further west and use the DLSD and a freeway to downtown, he said.

The essential plan was also beneficial because it reduces the park space lost to other bus-only lane options, he said. Planners hope to increase bus capacity from 90 per hour to more than 180.

Planners ruled out DLSD options over the years until they settled on the essential plan. Posters at the meeting explained how planners ruled out the addition of a light rail, an express tunnel and an underwater tunnel under the lake, primarily because of their high cost.

The design adds acres of park space, primarily between Grand and Fullerton avenues and along Belmont Harbor, by expanding the shoreline toward the lake. That additional land will allow planners to straighten out another S-shaped curve.

This one is located at Oak Street, and planners promise to smooth out the curve to reduce traffic delays.

This would come nearly 40 years after the dangerous S-curve south of Chicago disappeared. Described by some as a Z-curve and immortalized in the movie “Blues Brothers,” it ran between Wacker and Randolph before it was corrected in 1986.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Planners also ruled out the idea of ​​turning DLSD into a local street with traffic lights, since the expressway sometimes handles 160,000 cars a day, while the local road option has a maximum capacity of 48,000.

North Side residents who attended the meeting were divided in their support for the plan.

Lisa Smith, 72, of Edgewater, generally supported the plan and questioned critics who wanted to move away from the car-focused DLSD.

“We are not Amsterdam,” he said. “I drive a car, a motorbike and a bicycle. All this ‘Let’s go back to the 19th century’ stuff is not a vision of the future.”

North DuSable Lake Shore Drive Phase 1 Study

Bill Enright, 59, of Buena Park, said he was disappointed that planners were no longer considering alternative modes of transportation, such as light rail and bus lanes.

“This is the first opportunity we’ve had in years to get it right,” he said. “I like it a lot, but it’s still an important road.”

Transit agencies will now draw up a design and conduct the studies needed to apply for federal grants, a process that could take a couple of years. After that, construction will be completed in phases, starting near Grand Avenue, over a five- to 10-year period.

The project is led by the Chicago and Illinois departments of transportation, with input from the Chicago Transit Agency and the Chicago Park District.