Saturday, August 16, 2014

95th St. construction

I made a discovery a little while ago that was good news-bad news.  The good part: they're finally repaving 95th St. through Beverly (probably Vanderpoel to Leavitt, not sure of length of project).  The bad part: they have the westbound lanes closed NOW as they work, so traffic is reduced to one lane in each direction on the south side of the median.

If you need to reach a business along 95th today, allow yourself extra time for traffic and/or creative navigation.  Traffic approaching the construction zone is likely to be extremely slow.  Better yet, walk there or ride your bike, approaching from a side street. 

If you are going somewhere near, but not ON, 95th, I'd suggest avoiding 95th totally.

3 comments:

Fargo said...

And today they're working on the south side of the street, which blocked access to the farmers market. Because I'm on crutches and car dependent for now, this kept me from getting to the farmers market.

Why couldn't they have done the south side yesterday, when there were few businesses open on that stretch and open businesses like Top Notch, Southtown Health Foods, Jimmy Jamm and others could have gotten more business? Today, when all those businesses are closed, they should have done the north side and left the south side open, so folks could reach the farmers market.

Was there ANY coordination with the ward office on this, or didn't they care enough to keep these 95th St. businesses from getting screwed yet again by construction?

Unknown said...

One month later...still a problem. Hasn't it now even over a year? I'm trying to patronize businesses on 95 th. One business owner told me last week that the street in front of his business has been torn up four successive times....gas, cable, sewer and beautification. A little coordination would have gone a very long way. Those businesses are hurting!

Fargo said...

I think it has been over a year since this sorry mess started. Last night we were walking to Top Notch for dinner and found the SW and SE corners of 95th & Hoyne torn up. The SW corner of 95th & Damen, which was torn up for months, is finally done.

I've struggled with accessibility issues during several weeks on crutches or using a cane this summer. Construction and just plain decrepit sidewalk conditions on adjacent streets have made it quite hazardous to get around at times.

Construction conditions have prevented me from getting to 95th St. businesses at various points during this seemingly endless mess. When I've gotten there, I've often seen fewer customers. Right now the south side of 95th opposite Top Notch is off limits for parking, which is surely hurting their business. We saw a lot fewer people there than we would have expected for a pleasant Saturday night.

I've heard stories from several business owners about the street out front getting torn up multiple times. Supposedly the city created an office to coordinate construction projects. Doesn't seem like they did their job on 95th St.