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Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
nordsider
()
Date: January 11, 2014 07:32PM
With our recent snowfall recently, I wondered what the total mileage is of all Chicago streets? Especially when one considers the effort required to clear the snow from its many streets. It seems to me that I have read somewhere, that the distance is about equal from Chicago to Dublin Ireland, 3660 miles?
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2014 10:43AM by nordsider.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2014 10:43AM by nordsider.
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
Mr Downtown
()
Date: January 12, 2014 06:13PM
CDOT says "more than 4000 miles." Looking at the city's GIS data for streets, the lengths of all centerlines sums to 4,456 miles.
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
nordsider
()
Date: January 12, 2014 07:31PM
Mr Downtown, Thanks for the mileage; it should be the distance from Chicago to Pozan Poland, at 4500 miles.
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
Richard Stachowski
()
Date: January 13, 2014 12:06AM
[b]Also 60 miles of downtown tunnels according to statistics.[/b]
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2014 12:07AM by Richard Stachowski.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2014 12:07AM by Richard Stachowski.
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
Mr Downtown
()
Date: January 13, 2014 01:11PM
The tunnels don't have to be snowplowed most years.
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
Richard Stachowski
()
Date: January 13, 2014 08:25PM
[b]THere were over 300 plows what I understand.[/b]
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
Elf Odin
()
Date: January 14, 2014 12:09AM
Mr Downtown Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The tunnels don't have to be snowplowed most
> years.
But they need to be drained periodically, in years ending in “92”. :)
-------------------------------------------------------
> The tunnels don't have to be snowplowed most
> years.
But they need to be drained periodically, in years ending in “92”. :)
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
Brian J. Patterson
()
Date: January 14, 2014 02:49PM
Hello, Elf Odin and all.
That would be the "freight" tunnels. Going from memory, these tunnels are disused narrow-gage RAIL tunnels suitable for mining car type rail stock. They were used to move coal, merchandise, and other freight as and when needed, avoiding surface streets. They became disused when motor vehicles became reliable and popular. They were NEVER open to automobile traffic. In fact, most if not all of the tunnel sections are too small for automobiles full stop.
The 60 miles of "tunnels" Richard mentions above are probably included in the 4500 street mile total mentioned by Mr. Downtown. After all, 100 yards here, 10 blocks there, and pretty soon, you're talking real mileage.
Most of that 60 miles is above the water table, and thus isn't subject to "pokeage" like what flooded the freight tunnels in 1992. However, at least some of the 60 miles are below "local grade" and thus flood much more frequently! Other sections, such as lower Wacker, lower Michigan, etc are not subject to this particular issue.
Thanks.
Brian J. Patterson.
Elf Odin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mr Downtown Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The tunnels don't have to be snowplowed most
> > years.
>
> But they need to be drained periodically, in years
> ending in “92”. :)
That would be the "freight" tunnels. Going from memory, these tunnels are disused narrow-gage RAIL tunnels suitable for mining car type rail stock. They were used to move coal, merchandise, and other freight as and when needed, avoiding surface streets. They became disused when motor vehicles became reliable and popular. They were NEVER open to automobile traffic. In fact, most if not all of the tunnel sections are too small for automobiles full stop.
The 60 miles of "tunnels" Richard mentions above are probably included in the 4500 street mile total mentioned by Mr. Downtown. After all, 100 yards here, 10 blocks there, and pretty soon, you're talking real mileage.
Most of that 60 miles is above the water table, and thus isn't subject to "pokeage" like what flooded the freight tunnels in 1992. However, at least some of the 60 miles are below "local grade" and thus flood much more frequently! Other sections, such as lower Wacker, lower Michigan, etc are not subject to this particular issue.
Thanks.
Brian J. Patterson.
Elf Odin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mr Downtown Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The tunnels don't have to be snowplowed most
> > years.
>
> But they need to be drained periodically, in years
> ending in “92”. :)
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
Mr Downtown
()
Date: January 15, 2014 01:56AM
No, of course the freight tunnels are not counted in the mileage of Chicago streets.
The 4456-mile figure would overstate, probably by about two percent or so, what's actually drivable and thought of as a "street." There are lots of little 50- to 100-foot stubs around the city that people treat as private driveways, as well as sections that have been vacated for parks, schoolyards, and the like. I don't believe the figure includes true paper streets, such as the swampland subdivisions around Lake Calumet.
[color=#00CC00]>THere were over 300 plows what I understand.
[/color]
No idea what this means.
The 4456-mile figure would overstate, probably by about two percent or so, what's actually drivable and thought of as a "street." There are lots of little 50- to 100-foot stubs around the city that people treat as private driveways, as well as sections that have been vacated for parks, schoolyards, and the like. I don't believe the figure includes true paper streets, such as the swampland subdivisions around Lake Calumet.
[color=#00CC00]>THere were over 300 plows what I understand.
[/color]
No idea what this means.
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
davey7
()
Date: January 16, 2014 02:40PM
How are some of the boulevards counted? Like say the ones with central express lanes and side access/frontage roads?
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
Mr Downtown
()
Date: January 17, 2014 01:18AM
Boulevard frontage roads are counted separately; Midway Plaisance is treated as two one-way streets; a few locations like Stony Island south of 67th are also treated as doubled streets; all expressways are counted double; the various levels of Wacker and Michigan are counted separately.
What I'm looking at are the street centerline files that CDOT would use to make a map at roughly 1:10,000 up to 1:50,000 scale.
What I'm looking at are the street centerline files that CDOT would use to make a map at roughly 1:10,000 up to 1:50,000 scale.
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
davey7
()
Date: January 17, 2014 02:47PM
Just guessing, but then portions of King Drive would counted as three. Interesting...
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
wkinzie
()
Date: January 21, 2014 03:32PM
According to the Streets and Sanitation video on You Tube about their plow operations, there are 7780 miles of streets in Chicago.With 284 plows,150 garbage trucks with quick hitch plows and 24 small 4by4 vehicles to respond when snow falls
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2014 03:33PM by wkinzie.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2014 03:33PM by wkinzie.
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
Mr Downtown
()
Date: January 22, 2014 01:32AM
Well, that's absurd. Perhaps they're counting lane-miles (in other words, multiplying by four all the miles of a four-lane street). If there were 7780 miles of street, over 40 percent of Chicago's entire area (234 square miles) would be streets. The actual figure is under 25 percent.
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
Brian J. Patterson
()
Date: January 22, 2014 01:17PM
Hello, Mr. Downtown and all.
1. I'm sure that the 7780 mile figure is for "lane" miles for the reasons you described. However, from the viewpoint of Streets and San, that isn't as messed up as you'd think.
2. CDOT needs to maintain structures. Thus, they would count centerline of pavement distance; with double and triple paved streets being counted two or three times.
3. Streets and San has to clear LANES. How far would one truck drive to plow every LANE one time? Thus, their figure of 7780 miles.
Thanks.
Brian J. Patterson.
1. I'm sure that the 7780 mile figure is for "lane" miles for the reasons you described. However, from the viewpoint of Streets and San, that isn't as messed up as you'd think.
2. CDOT needs to maintain structures. Thus, they would count centerline of pavement distance; with double and triple paved streets being counted two or three times.
3. Streets and San has to clear LANES. How far would one truck drive to plow every LANE one time? Thus, their figure of 7780 miles.
Thanks.
Brian J. Patterson.
Re: Total mileage of Chicago streets?
Posted by:
Jeff_Weiner
()
Date: January 22, 2014 11:21PM
Surprisingly, for the 27+ years I worked for the City, I never had to deal with either street or labe mileage. However, in building the City's first computer signal database, the question was how to count intersections, particularly boulevard style streets. My supervisor at the time instructed me to count the discrete intersections, so if it was on the boulevard-like stretch of W. Randolph Street, or the portion od King drive with service drives, there were 3 intersections. Stony Island and 71st rated 4 intersections, while other locations along Stony had only 2. These made their way into the inventory book that I used to print out until 2004, and the current database appeared to have the same limits.
