SMITH PARK — The first phase of construction of protected bike lanes and pedestrian upgrades is underway on a stretch of Grand Avenue in Ukrainian Village and West Town.
Updated plans for the street changes were presented Wednesday at an open house hosted by the Chicago Department of Transportation and Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) at the Smith Park fieldhouse, 2526 W. Grand Ave.
The project aims to overhaul Grand between Chicago and Ogden avenues by adding dedicated lanes for bicyclists, making intersections more pedestrian friendly and lowering the speed limit to 20 mph along the entire corridor.
The Chicago Avenue to Damen Avenue section is currently under construction and is expected to be finished this fall, transportation department spokesperson Erica Schroeder said last week.
The second phase between Damen and Ogden avenues will begin early next year, she said.
At an initial community meeting to present the project last month, Chicago Department of Transportation complete streets manager David Smith argued the changes were vitally needed to slow traffic and protect not just cyclists but also pedestrians and drivers along Grand Avenue, which is a popular shortcut from the Northwest Side to Downtown.
The city has tracked more than 100 drivers per day on Grand Avenue going over 70 mph and hundreds more going over 50 mph, Smith said. The speed limit is 30 mph.
More than 650 crashes have occurred in the past five years along the street from Chicago to Ogden avenues, according to data shared at both meetings.
Under the city’s plan, bike lanes going in both directions would run next to the sidewalk. Street parking would be moved between the bike lane and the traffic lane, or in some sections removed from one side of the street.
The changes also include numerous raised sidewalks that would be installed along many of the residential intersections with Grand, as well as signal improvements at stop lights, hundreds of new trees and upgraded lighting.
The full project outline can be found here.
With construction underway on the first phase of the overhaul, the plans presented to neighbors Wednesday are for the most part a done deal, officials said.
“We feel really good about what we have here,” Smith said. “We’re still working on a couple of minor adjustments east of Damen, but all within the framework of a complete street project, improving the safety and accessibility for everybody using the street.”
The city’s transportation agency did make some block-by-block changes along the route since the May meeting, like moving parking to the opposite side of the street in a few areas.
That includes the block of Grand Avenue between Damen and Wolcott avenues, which is home to Albany Steel and Brass Corporation.
President Tom Swiatkiewicz first raised concerns last month that the narrowing of the street outside his business under the plan would prevent supply trucks from being able to back into the company’s buildings, which take up a majority of the block.
Swiatkiewicz said he’s met with Chicago Department of Transportation planners since the initial May meeting to voice those concerns. The department then shifted street parking in the plan from the south side of the street to the north side to accommodate the company’s uses.
That should allow trucks to continue to access the buildings, Swiatkiewicz said. But he still has numerous issues with the street upgrades coming to Grand Avenue, including the removal of some parking in the area.
“What I’m worried about is making it difficult for people to come and do business with us,” he said. “We have a lot of customers, construction workers in particular, that come out of Downtown, pull up in front of Albany Steel, they get their stuff, gone in 10 minutes. If this whole plan goes through … they’re not going to be able to park.”
But West Town resident Paul Okarma, who said he frequently walks, cycles and drives on Grand Avenue, disagreed the bike lanes and other changes were likely to hurt businesses.
The street as it currently exists feels “like this area you should not be in,” and the new plans feel more inviting to street users of all kinds, he said.
“You have to look forward. Instead of people driving and parking at your business, [this project] will probably bring in someone who’s on their bike or walking or taking transit. It’s not a zero-sum game. It’s not ‘you lose parking, you get no more customers.’ There’s growth opportunities here.”
Cycling advocate Kyle Lucas, co-founder of the group Better Streets Chicago, also praised the plans shared Wednesday, although said he wishes the Chicago Department of Transportation would extend concrete barriers along the bike lane closer to major intersections along the Grand corridor.
“I think that what they’ve designed is a significant improvement. I think it’ll do a lot to slow drivers down,” Lucas said. “There are some intersections that I think are still a little bit dicey, I think that the department needs to work better on protecting intersections with concrete.”
Lucas also disputed the street overhaul would be detrimental to business owners, arguing safer streets mean they’ll be frequented more often by all kinds of users.
“We’ve seen that world-round, every single time that cities have invested in safe infrastructure, that has been a boon to business,” Lucas said. “That’s going to happen here in Chicago, too. We just have to make sure that we’re actually implementing that infrastructure so people feel safe.”
Douglas Van Tress, who owns antique company The Golden Triangle, 2035 W. Grand Ave., gave detailed feedback on the project as presented at Wednesday’s meeting. Van Tress moved his company to the neighborhood from River North in 2021.
He said he’s overall a fan of the complete streets model, but has concerns about losing parking as well as the speed in which the project has moved forward. Van Tress said Wednesday’s meeting, where the plans presented were mostly set in stone, felt “decorative.”
“A little bit more input was needed. What about the Amazon, FedEx and UPS drivers? Where did they go when they’re blocked in by curbs?” he said. “I do think there’s a risk that Grand will be a super cool, boutique street, that will make some people super happy, but will cease to be an arterial street. That’s a big risk.”
The Grand Avenue overhaul is one of several similar projects currently underway or under consideration in the larger West Town and Bucktown area.
A half-mile north on Augusta Boulevard, the Chicago Department of Transportation is finishing installation of protected bike lanes and street improvements between Western and Milwaukee avenues. Construction is expected to wrap up this summer.
Earlier this week, the agency unveiled plans to add protected bike lanes, pedestrian upgrades and other changes on Milwaukee Avenue between North and Western avenues. That includes building a contraflow bike lane on Leavitt Street from Milwaukee to Lyndale Street.
Those projects are expected to be completed later this year, officials said Monday.
On Wood Street in West Town and Wicker Park, a controversial protected bike lane proposal has languished for more than a year — but officials said they plan to provide updates shortly.
If built as proposed under Ald. Daniel La Spata’s (1st) 2021 participatory budgeting process, Wood Street from Grand Avenue to Ellen Street in Wicker Park would be converted into a northbound one-way to accommodate the bike lanes.
The 1st Ward office is planning a community meeting to discuss the proposal, with details to be be announced shortly, 1st Ward chief of staff Nicholas Zettel said in an email Monday.
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