Streeterville street chaos to end by holidays

By Ed Lowe
Senior writer
Streets in the north Streeterville community have been torn up and traffic disrupted by seemingly endless projects. People’s Energy has been digging trenches and covering sidewalks with plywood panels and streets with thick metal plates during much of the summer. Especially affected are: Mies Van der Rohe Way, Dewitt and Delaware Places, and Chestnut, Pearson, and Walton streets. The bus routes numbered 157, 10, and 125 have had to adjust to the changing nature of this slalom course. Garages and driveways have been blocked, though work crews have courteously moved barricades and traffic cones to accommodate drivers using the garages.
Inside talked to People’s Energy spokesman David Ladd, who gave this explanation: The project is called The Northwestern Memorial Project and is related to work being done in the construction of the Lurie Research Center at Superior St. and Fairbanks Ct. Under the site of this new construction lies a very old cast iron gas main pipe that feeds the north area of Streeterville. In digging the foundation and caissons for the new hospital complex, engineers were concerned that a pipe rupture might cause gas outages to most of the high rise buildings in the area. The risks of explosion and gas leaks were also considered.
So, in preparation for the work, the gas company decided to replace all the ancient gas lines with new “medium pressure” plastic mains, a fact which accounts for the piles of yellow plastic piping seen occasionally on the streets of the area. This required the trenching of the streets north of Chicago Ave. which are served by the main under the Lurie project. According to Ladd, the company will then “purge the old lines to be sure there is no residual gas and then switch over to the new gas lines that have been installed.”
“We expect to finish by the end of October,” Ladd said. “Then, we’ll scratch the old asphalt from the streets and repave all of them. We have finally gotten city permission to do some of the restoration work during the week.”