Former Skyway Exit/Entrance Ramps


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Former Skyway Exit/Entrance Ramps
Posted by: WayOutWardell ()
Date: December 22, 2010 10:58PM

Offhand, does anyone know when the Skyway ramps for Michigan and Indiana Avenues were removed? The roadways still remain widened where they used to go around the ramps (similar to the Stony Island ramps).

I wonder if the property owners whose land was taken for that project are entitled to getting it back since it no longer exists. Har har.

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Re: Former Skyway Exit/Entrance Ramps
Posted by: Cicero Ray ()
Date: December 22, 2010 11:41PM

From what I can recall on driving to downtown:Michigan ramp was closed in 1994/6 then removed before 2000.Once they raised the toll, I also remember see drivers enter the Skyway driving up the exit ramps. Pretty scarey.

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Re: Former Skyway Exit/Entrance Ramps
Posted by: WayOutWardell ()
Date: December 29, 2010 07:45PM

Cicero Ray Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> From what I can recall on driving to
> downtown:Michigan ramp was closed in 1994/6 then
> removed before 2000.Once they raised the toll, I
> also remember see drivers enter the Skyway driving
> up the exit ramps. Pretty scarey.


Yeah, that is scary for sure. Thanks for the info. There were a couple of derilect TO SKYWAY signs at around Michigan and 35th St that were taken down just recently.

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Re: Former Skyway Exit/Entrance Ramps
Posted by: mkmcclure63 ()
Date: June 30, 2012 01:49AM

I lived in Jackson Park (!) between 1984-86. While the ramps were still standing, they were completely closed to vehicular traffic. The maintenance was high and the traffic low. Also problematic were the bridges' use as devices to repel to Englewood Yard where containers, etc were looted consistently. Conrail was anxious to see their destruction. Truly odd to see them closed but standing. They looked almost exactly like the Stony Island ramps prior to renovation.

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Re: Former Skyway Exit/Entrance Ramps
Posted by: davey7 ()
Date: August 29, 2012 06:21PM

Don't forget the ramps at the east end of the Skyway that were taken down when they lowered it (I think they removed a couple of ramps anyway).

I hadn't thought of the train yards and crime, I seem to recall people complaining that they got off too soon and ended up on Michigan and State rather than the Dan Ryan too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2012 06:22PM by davey7.

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Re: Former Skyway Exit/Entrance Ramps
Posted by: Jeff_Weiner ()
Date: March 04, 2013 07:01PM

In the late 1980's, there was a project to rebuild the Dan Ryan expressway, and one of the local off-system routes were Michigan and Indiana. The City contemplated rebuilding the ramps, but the concrete was in such bad shape, it was decided that they would come down, which happened about the early 1990's. The City did accept Federal funding to modernize the traffic signals, and I was responsible for the initial design requirements and timings. Considering the condition of the neighborhoods at the time, I doubt these signals would have been modernized otherwise,

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Re: Former Skyway Exit/Entrance Ramps
Posted by: mkmcclure63 ()
Date: January 19, 2014 02:00AM

It was scary to be on South Michigan or South Wabash in the mid-1980s. Both ramps had barrels placed at their northern ends that did not keep enterprising hoods from walking right past. Later Conrail added chain link fencing that was cut at least twice a week. No doubt the Skyway and the railroad were thrilled to remove these unsightly concrete disasters.

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