A construction timeline has been revealed for the upcoming redesign of the Logan Square traffic circle at the heart of the neighborhood. The major intersection made up of N Milwaukee Avenue, N Kedzie Boulevard, and W Logan Boulevard, will finally be rebuilt after years of delays and concerns from local neighbors over its safety. The project is being led by the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) along with IDOT and Capitol Cement Co.
Site map of rebuilt Logan Square via CDOT
New roads (green) – closed roads (red) – not all roadwork is reflected, via Google Maps
The design for the circle dates back to 2018 when it was presented to the community and selected over other iterations. To the north, Kedzie Boulevard will be rerouted over the current bus turn-around and thus no longer directly enter the square, but instead meet Milwaukee Avenue with a stoplight. The existing stretch of Kedzie Boulevard will be converted into a new plaza with outdoor dining along with upgrades around the Logan Square station.
Plan for square redesign via CDOT
Rendering of upgraded plaza from station remodel plan (left) – site plan for plaza from square redesign (right)
Moving south, Milwaukee Avenue will no longer cut through the square in order to create a formal traffic circle with bike lanes. This will allow for two-way traffic along the whole route unlike today, this will be created with a slight re-alignment of the three traffic lights along the square. With the previous stretch of Milwaukee Avenue also becoming a pedestrian plaza that will be able to hold the Logan Square farmers market during its outdoor season.
Rendering of Logan Square station remodel by Jacobs Engineering
Rendering of Logan Square station remodel by Jacobs Engineering
The project will also tie into the ongoing work to add raised sidewalks, bike lanes, and more to Milwaukee Avenue stretching up to W Belmont Avenue. The project is now officially out to bid and is expected to cost around $27.4 million according to Block Club, with most of it being covered by federal grants and TIF money. Once all the vendors are chosen, CDOT hopes to begin work this spring and complete it by 2026.
A remodel of the Logan Square CTA station is also in the works and could begin later this year.
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Hopefully they invest in some serious bollards for the chunk of Milwaukee becoming a plaza.
I hold extremely little trust in drivers grasping the new plan right off the bat. And CDoT likes to tease other forms of transportation with half-arsed infrastructure. Plastic bollards are a waste of taxpayer money…
I love this so much, finally some infrastructure changes that aren’t all about accommodating cars first. Safety, a stronger definition of place, multi-modal transfers, more please!
Amen, brother!
Obvi a much welcome improvement, but a two way traffic circle is the most regressive, inefficient, and illogical road phenomena only seen in… Chicago. Does anyone know the rationale behind such backwardness or is this some new trend setting progressive street modal?
Cutting out one traffic lane and making the circle a one way would not only be more efficient but also expand on the public space. Also the Logan Train station just needs to be rehabbed not rebuilt, the new above ground architectural superstructure will just replace an otherwise very Chicago Utilitarian piece or architecture that needs sprucing up. Stop wasting our tax $$$.
I totally agree with you that the traffic circle should be one way. The flow of traffic would be so much better. And as you said, that just how traffic circles work. Two way traffic is simply not necessary.
Couldn’t agree more!!
I love everything else about this project, but a why isn’t this just a normal one way roundabout?? The traffic lights on this alone will cost $100K/yr, not to mention slow down traffic AND decrease pedestrian safety
I’m going to trust that qualified professionals have evaluated this, but honestly it looks like it’s just replacing one form of chaos for another. It seems like having everyone on Kedzie make left turns to go on Milwaukee for 1/2 a block is just asking for a massive bottleneck.
It also looks like they spill bikers onto the sidewalk in several places onto this shared use path. Definitely I don’t foresee any dogs or children suddenly darting into the bike line on a busy Sunday 🙁
Overall, Logan Square is not well-designed now, and this just pushes the chaos around without really fixing anything. But I hope I’m wrong, b/c whatever happens we’re stuck with the new design for probably decades now that it’s being put in.
I think this will actually be a good change. A place for the farmers market to not close down everything quite as much, more park. Slightly more bike paths. The bus terminal did need the upgrade too! I think this will be an over all improvement.
I got told they were moving the statue by a eith misinformed or perhaps angry peoperson about the change. Anyway I think the parshal round about oval is a good thing, reducing traffic lights and intersections is a good thing for traffic timing. I was against this yell i actually saw the plan