Frustrated drivers and confused bus riders slowly navigated detours posted outside Union Station on Tuesday morning.
A section of Canal Street has closed for a year and a half of construction as the city replaces 100-year-old streets that double as the roof of the popular Loop station.
Crews will tear apart the street that’s technically a viaduct, all while keeping the station beneath running smoothly, said Moira Kent, a civil engineer at the Chicago Department of Transportation.
“It’s the roof of Union Station,” Kent said Tuesday outside the station. “It’s a station we need to maintain operating while we work.”
A map of construction on Canal Street outside Union Station.
Chicago Department of Transportation
While crews installed fences and removed signs on Canal Street, commuters stressed out over detours posted Tuesday morning.
Some searched for bus stops that had moved. Drivers waited in congestion that stretched a block south on Clinton Street.
“Because of the construction, I don’t know where the bus is,” one woman said on her cellphone.
Bus company employees wearing reflective vests walked outside the station to direct travelers to the new bus stops.
“It’s been a pretty stressful day,” said an employee of Coach USA who was directing passengers at Clinton and Quincy Street.
Commuters wait at a temporary bus stop Tuesday near South Clinton Street and West Quincy Street outside Union Station as crews begin the Canal Street viaduct reconstruction project.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
Driver Patricia Payne came from Beverly to pick up relatives.
“It’s a bit of a mess,” she said. Payne’s familiar with the area, so she wasn’t delayed too badly, she said.
Construction began at 7 p.m. Monday as crews blocked Canal between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard. In coming weeks, crews will place a type of scaffolding over the street to protect the concourse and police station below, Kent said.
Sidewalks that remained open Tuesday at the main entrances on Canal will be closed in a “couple of weeks” when demolition begins, Kent said. A wooden pedestrian bridge will be built from Adams to the building, she said.
The second phase of construction, on Canal between Jackson and Harrison Street, could begin in the fall, she said. At least one lane of traffic will remain open in that project.
South Canal Street will be closed for about 18 months to make way for renovation.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
The last two phases will replace viaducts on Canal between Madison and Adams, where one lane will remain open, and then between Harrison and Taylor, which will fully close, she said.
The Canal Street viaduct was built around 1918 and was last rehabbed in 1980, Kent said. It needs to be replaced for safety purposes, she said.
When construction is finished, Canal Street will look “very similar” but with a raised platform in the center median as a “protective space for buses,” Kent said.
CDOT has already replaced some of the east-west viaducts near Union Station. The Jackson Street viaduct was replaced in 2009.