SOUTH LOOP — A busy portion of Roosevelt Road will remain far from finished well after the snow melts — maintaining a bottleneck that has caused headaches for drivers for months.
Work on a tree-lined bike and pedestrian path connecting the Roosevelt CTA station to Grant Park, among other Roosevelt Road improvements, will last until August, Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance President Tina Feldstein said Tuesday.
It's the latest delay for the project, which began in July and was expected to be finished by Dec. 1 — or possibly sooner.
"It was supposed to be done before the [2014 Chicago] marathon," Feldstein said.
Feldstein said she received the August completion date from Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd). Dowell told DNAinfo Thursday that she was told by the Chicago Department of Transportation that the roadwork would be completed this summer.
"So I said August," Dowell said.
A CDOT spokesman said Wednesday the roadwork was expected to be completed by the end of May.
The construction on the already congested section of Roosevelt has snarled traffic for months.
Plans call for a piquant walkway and bicycle lanes complete with an elevated tree-lined parkway, art, and inspirational messages winding from the South Loop to the new Grant Park Skate Park. Separately, crews are also widening Roosevelt Road sidewalks and adding a turn lane onto Indiana Avenue, Feldstein said.
Roosevelt Road already has marked bike lanes from Wabash to roughly Ashland avenues, but the elevated parkway with trees is meant to further protect bicyclists. To lure pedestrians to Grant Park and nearby attractions, the pathway's art will pay homage to Buckingham Fountain and other nearby attractions. Text inlaid in the pathway will offer messages including "prosper," "witness," "plan" and "believe," for extra motivation.
This story has been updated with new information from Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd).
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