Underground Lanes, Belmont Exit Overhaul Suggested for LSD

Burying underground express lanes and completely overhauling the Belmont Avenue exit are just a few things neighbors say they want to see when officials reconstruct Lake Shore Drive.

It’s a part of the Illinois and Chicago departments of transportation’s “Redefine the Drive” initiative, a plan to redevelop the high-trafficked, 7-mile artery between Grand and Hollywood avenues.

Neighbors gathered in August at three public meetings to share their thoughts on what Lake Shore Drive is lacking, from the actual road to the parks and lakefront trail. CDOT says they received more than 300 public comments they plan to use to develop construction designs.

A number of those included suggestions to move Lake Shore Drive underground, either entirely or by adding tunneled expressways.

“Drop the Drive!” one note on the large idea board read. “Underground, cover with park.”

“Create tunnel of express lanes under LSD,” read another.

“Drop the drive underground & cover it with park like the Boston Big Dig,” and “Bury LSD below ground and create new park land like Boston,” read two more comments.

Even more suggestions, however, were in regards to streamlining public transportation along the stretch. Neighbors posted comments asking for bus rapid transit stations at major intersections like Montrose, Belmont and Diversey avenues. Many others asked CDOT to consider a light rail system from Hollywood Avenue to the loop.

And it’s clear Lake View residents are fed up with the Belmont Avenue off-ramp, an intersection that doled out the second most red light tickets in Chicago last year. Comment after comment asked for a reconfiguration of the congested ramp, an area that’s already on CDOT Deputy Commissioner Luann Hamilton’s radar, along with boosting public transit.

“I’m sure we’ll be looking at ways to change transit for core users,” Hamilton told Patch in August. “It could be something like dedicated lanes for buses. It could be queue bypasses on ramps. For example, at Belmont, there could be an exclusive lane for the buses to move ahead of traffic and off the drive faster. And, it could be something like a BRT.”

Other comments talked about rethinking the lakefront trail and tight pedestrian underpasses, two things Hamilton says CDOT will also be addressing.

“Redefine the Drive,” which is currently in Phase I, is being funded by Gov. Pat Quinn’s Illinois Jobs Now program. This process will wrap in late 2016 or early 2017, Hamilton says, with construction potentially moving forward in 2018.