LAKE SHORE DRIVE, CHICAGO - Crumbling Pavement, Dangerous Potholes Forestall Seasonal Speed Limit Increase!
SPEED LIMIT ON ONE OF CHICAGO'S MOST SCENIC, MOST FAMOUS ROADWAYS TO REMAIN AT 40 MPH ALL SUMMER!
Here on Chicago's Lake Front, Lake Shore Drive is one of the most scenic city drives anywhere. Famous Chicago Skyscrapers to the west. Beautiful blue Lake Michigan on the east. Our "Outer Drive" was even immortalized in song, by Aliotta, Haynes, and Jeremiah, in the early 1970's.
Today, Lake Shore Drive is still in use, to thousands of cars each day, from Hollywood Avenue and Chicago's Edgewater Neighborhood on the North Side, through the Neighborhoods of Uptown, Lakeview, The Gold Coast, The Loop, Bronzeville, to 63rd Street in the Jackson Park Neighborhood on the South Side.
But the ride has gotten very bumpy, and deteriorated concrete and large potholes fill the roadway, especially the stretch north of Irving Park Road on the North Side of Chicago. Indeed, the Chicago Department of Transportation filled over 800 potholes this past winter season, and returned to re-patch more than 70 times.
City officials intend to continue patching LSD as needed for the coming few months, while waiting for a longer-term resurfacing commitment from the State of Illinois. Actually, the Illinois Department of Transportation is responsible for road repair - it's actually U.S. Route 41, and a state-designated highway as well.
Until more permanent repairs to The Drive can be completed, especially on its choppy northern end, the speed limit on Lake Shore Drive headed north from Downtown Chicago will remain 40 miles per hour for the summer. Usually, the speed limit is increased between April 1 and November 1, to allow drivers to take advantage of better spring and summer driving conditions. The winter speed limit is reduced to lessen the amount of salt passing vehicles spray at grass and shrubs in the median of the roadway.
New to Chicago? You've got to drive the stretch of Lake Shore Drive southbound to The Chicago Loop. It truly is memorable! But, now . . . very bumpy!
Please see Jon Hilkevitch's article in today's Chicago Tribune for more details.
DEAN MOSS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
