Chicago recently began construction on the $60 million Navy Pier Flyover—an elevated bike and pedestrian path built along Lake Michigan near the Navy Pier.
Blair Kamin pens an article in support of the Navy Pier Flyover, which had been criticized for its rising costs during the recession. Kamin cites the current, crowded experience of the lakefront near Navy Pier as the evidence in support of the project.
“The area where Lake Shore Drive bypasses Navy Pier is an urban design mess,” writes Kamin. “At various street intersections, like those at Illinois and Grand Avenues, and on the lower level of the Lake Shore Drive bridge over the Chicago River, drivers, cyclists, inline skaters, joggers and pedestrians jockey for space. It’s claustrophobic and dangerous—the antithesis of the shoreline as a refuge from urban crowding.”
Kamin goes on to detail the project’s three phases, which are expected to conclude in 2018.
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research