Quote:
Originally Posted by emathias
I've thought for a long time that the City needs to make Canal raised between Lake and Kinzie. If that happened, then an elevated podium might be able to be integrated. I also think the City should make a bridge between Wolf Point and Canal. I always envisioned it over the railroad tracks going due west as an extension of the Mart Drive, but I guess it would make more sense to connect to Fulton since Fulton actually is a real street that connects to the grid already. That'd be a lot more than a pedestrian bridge, but both that area and Wolf Point would realistically need more more, better roadways to prevent total chaos - Kinzie by itself can't handle existing traffic, let alone new traffic generated by K station and this building and Wolf Point. At a minimum, the City will need to connect Clinton to Grand and turn at least one lane of the Orleans bridge southbound.
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I don't necessarily see a need for all this infrastructure just for Wolf Point. People who insist on driving can come and go via the Ohio Feeder and Orleans>Hubbard>Kingsbury. People who take transit face a short walk or bus ride from Ogilvie and Union, and people who take CTA have an even shorter walk down Mart Drive (which needs a south pedestrian walkway).
In the long run, I like the idea of extending Clinton... in the long term, it could be extended as a grade-level riverfront drive to connect with Elston at Augusta. This would open up the entire riverfront for development... right now much of it is cut off by elevated bridge approaches. Of course, the city would first have to remove the PMD designation. Near-downtown properties are terrible for most industrial uses because of heavy traffic... it only makes sense for downtown-oriented industry like ready-mix concrete, self storage, and such.