7/11/2001
Work to rebuild the Grant Park South underground parking garage is scheduled to move above ground on July 23, resulting in lane reductions on Michigan Avenue between Adams and Van Buren, the Public Building Commission of Chicago announced Wednesday.
Vehicle traffic on Michigan Avenue will be narrowed to two lanes in each direction on that two-block stretch starting that Monday, according to PBC executive director Eileen Carey, whose agency is rebuilding the garage for the Chicago Park District.
Jackson Drive between Michigan and Columbus in Grant Park will be closed for nearly a year during the reconstruction work, but Jackson Boulevard west of Michigan Avenue will remain open during the first phase of construction until Thanksgiving.
The $29 million reconstruction of the 38-year-old Grant Park South Garage began last March and is scheduled to continue through the fall of 2002. Those portions of Michigan Avenue and Jackson Drive affected by the construction work actually rest atop the garage structure, Carey noted.
The Michigan Avenue construction will start on the 23rd with demolition of the existing medians and relocation of traffic signals. During this three or four days of preparation work, motorists will be restricted to the two outermost lanes in each direction.
Then, reconstruction of the east half of Michigan Avenue will start, with all traffic shifted to the west side of the street-both northbound and southbound traffic running on two lanes each.
That traffic pattern will continue until Thanksgiving, after which the two-way traffic will be moved to the completed east half of Michigan Avenue while the west portion of the street is rebuilt.
As a result of the construction work, the Chicago Transit Authority will remove its bus stops at Jackson Boulevard in both directions.
Officials will try to maintain the ability of northbound Michigan Avenue motorists to make left turns onto Van Buren and Adams, and will start the project that way, but those turns may have to be curtailed if there is excessive traffic congestion.
All of the other municipal parking garages have remained open and will continue to be available to motorists. They include the recently renovated Grant Park North Garage with 1,800 parking spaces; the East Monroe Garage (3,800 spaces) and the new Millennium Garage, which has 1,550 parking spaces open now and more due in August.
When Grant Park North Garage was rebuilt, it required lane closures on Michigan Avenue-between Randolph and Monroe-very much like those starting on the 23rd from Adams to Van Buren.
For more information on this project, contact the PBC at (312) 744-3090 or click here.
