Ashland Avenue is slated to be repaved starting later this month from School to Clark. This repaving will involve improvements to pedestrian safety, including curb extensions and refuge islands, as well as bus bulbs benefiting the #9 bus.

You can watch a recording of our 8/21 meeting with the 40th Ward here.

Update (10/9/25):

Work is underway on the first segment of the resurfacing of Ashland Ave, between School St and Montrose Ave, and on the second segment between Foster and Ridge.

Crews are finishing all the outstanding concrete replacements (sidewalks and curbs) in Segment 1, which they aim to wrap up next week. They hope to start paving the second (and final) layer of asphalt possibly on Friday 10/17 or early the following week.

The paving and striping will require up to 2 weeks of work, during which there can be no parking on this stretch of Ashland. Once that portion is done, the vast majority of parking restrictions will be removed (with the exception of a small handful of concrete medians that will still need to be completed, including the pedestrian refuge island at Ashland & Cornelia).

In Segment 2, between Foster and Ridge, CDOT is starting concrete removals (sidewalks and curbs).

The Department of Water Management is working on replacing 1,300 of water main beneath Hutchinson (Greenview to Clark) and Greenview (Berteau to Cullom). The water main is the large pipe that runs along the street and brings water to each building's individual service line. The existing main dates back to the 1890s. This project will be an opportunity for DWM to replace the water main, replace any existing lead service lines, and fully repave all three blocks once the project is complete. The project is expected to last approximately 3 months. Impacted residents must abide by the parking restrictions and be on the lookout for direct phone outreach from the Water Department regarding their personal lead line.

• Expected Duration of Project: 3 months (July completion), followed by asphalt and concrete restoration.

• Parking impacts: 7am-3:30pm on weekdays – no access to or parking on the street. Parking will be available at all other times. Crews will work to accommodate special deliveries, disabled residents, etc.

• Water Shutoffs: Crews will strive to provide 5 days' notice ahead of any scheduled service interruptions. Some emergency repairs may take place (old pipes tend to crack as they are being worked on). These service interruptions are not expected to impacted buildings that are not on the directly impacted blocks.

Update (9/10/25):

This project is fully completed – including asphalt, concrete, and parkway restoration – as of Friday 9/12.

The Department of Water Management is planning on replacing the main beneath:

• Hermitage from Sunnyside to Montrose

• Sunnyside from Paulina to Ravenswood

• Ravenswood (west leg) from Wilson to Lawrence.

The water main is the large pipe that runs along the street and brings water to each building's individual service line. The existing main dates back to the 1890s. This project will be an opportunity for DWM to replace the water main, replace any existing lead service lines, and fully repave all three blocks once the project is complete. The project is expected to last approximately 3 months. Impacted residents and businesses must abide by the parking restrictions and be on the lookout for direct phone outreach from the Water Department regarding their personal lead line.

• Start Date: Crews intend to start work after Memorial Day.

• Expected Duration of Project: 3 months, followed by asphalt and concrete restoration.

• Parking impacts: 7am-3:30pm on weekdays – no access to or parking on the street. Parking will be available at all other times. Crews will work to accommodate special deliveries, disabled residents, etc.

• Water Shutoffs: Crews will strive to provide 5 days' notice ahead of any scheduled service interruptions. Some emergency repairs may take place (old pipes tend to crack as they are being worked on). These service interruptions are not expected to impacted buildings that are not on the directly impacted blocks.

You can watch a recording of our 5/19 meeting with the Water Department here.

Update (10/8/25):

Water Department crews are currently wrapping up this lengthy and intensive water main replacement project. They are completing the final service transfers on Hermitage this week and will be proceeding with the final connection of the new water main next week (along with a few outstanding catch basin replacements). They intend to be fully done and off the site by the end of next week.

Once the Water crews leave Hermitage, the restoration contractor will have a contractual maximum of 30 days to complete all outstanding concrete and asphalt restoration on the job. They have already completed the majority of the concrete work on Ravenswood and Sunnyside.

Alderman Martin worked with Ald. Vasquez to secure the funding for CDOT to resurface Damen Ave from Wilson Ave north to Farragut.

The work will involve grinding down the existing asphalt, raising manholes and other utility services to meet the street level, and repaving the streets with new asphalt. This will include replacing the asphalt on the street and replacing ADA ramps as well as damaged sidewalks.

On Damen, CDOT will also be making pedestrian safety improvements in the form of curb extensions and raised intersections at Leland and at Winnemac. They will also include improvements to bicycle facilities.

On 8/14/24 our office, along with CDOT and the 40th Ward, hosted a virtual meeting to discuss the work and address any concerns that residents or businesses may have. You can view a recording of this meeting here.

Update (9/9/25):

We were just informed that CDOT's contractor is returning to Damen starting tomorrow to put down one of the final touches: AMA paint. They will spend the next couple of weeks putting down colored paint on the raised intersections at Leland, Winnemac, and Winona, as well as raised crosswalks at Giddings and Ainslie. They will also put down green paint where needed for bike lanes.

This work will not require any closures; traffic lanes will just be temporarily shifted to the side as work takes place.

Giddings Plaza is a staple of the community and has been well-loved for decades. However, the condition of the plaza has worsened over the years, with missing pavers and tripping hazards that make the plaza difficult to navigate for our seniors, young children, and disabled residents. 

Starting on August 12th, CDOT will begin work to remove and replace the pavers on the plaza to eliminate these tripping hazards. The work will replace all the pavers, remove the broken water fountain (behind a bench near Jerry’s) to be replaced with a planter, and remove one of the trees in the plaza due to its health and impact on the pavers. 

After consulting with nearby businesses, our office coordinated with CDOT and the project contractor to create a plan that would have the least impact on the surrounding businesses, residents, and users of the plaza. The updated plan divides the plaza into 5 sections for the work to be completed in a phased manner.

Crews will work on one section of the plaza at a time – working from Lincoln back toward the alley – leaving the rest of the plaza open for pedestrian traffic. This phased approach will allow the plaza to still be partially accessible for pedestrians and residents, and will have the least amount of impact on the adjacent businesses and sidewalk cafés. During each phase, a 6-foot-fence will be put up along the perimeter of the relevant section to guarantee neighbors' safety. Equipment and materials will be brought from behind the plaza, but the alley will remain accessible throughout.

Update (5/15/25):

Work was largely completed.

The contractor still needs to complete punch list items over the past couple of weeks. They intend to return to remove pavers on the southeast corner of the plaza to build a new raingarden to address consistent standing water issues.

Alderman Martin helped the CTA secure $20M to proceed with a large-scale renovation of the Western Brown Line station, which will take place in 2024 and 2025.

The Alderman and the CTA have co-hosted two community meetings to help shape the work; you can read reporting about the first meeting here. You can also view a recording of the second meeting, hosted on 5/29/24, at this link.

Update (8/29/25):

Our office was just informed that the CTA plans to begin demolition in the bus turnaround area south of the Western Plaza, including the bus canopy itself. The CTA has opted to conduct this work overnight next week.

Work will take place during nighttime hours, 9:00 pm to 5:00 am, starting Wednesday September 3, 2025. The work will take 3 to 4 nights to complete.

The Department of Transportation is building the Leland Neighborhood Greenway from Rockwell Ave to Clark St. This low-stress bikeway slow traffic for the benefit of cyclists and pedestrians and will allow cyclists to safely bike from the lake to the river. Improvements will include:

• bike-friendly speed humps;

• detached curb extensions (bump-outs), landscaped west of Western;

• a contraflow bike lane on one-way stretches to allow cyclists to travel in both directions;

• raised crosswalks;

• a protected bike lane and traffic diverter between Lincoln and Western.

You can find out more about the project here.

Update (7/9/25):

Crews are building the final part of the project – a protected bike lane between Lincoln and Western – as part of the Western Plaza renovation work at that intersection.

As part of its Collector Resurfacing program, CDOT plans to repave Ravenswood Ave north of Wilson Ave. In addition to the repaving, CDOT will install a number of pedestrian and bicycle improvements along the corridor. As discussed at our 5/1/24 community meeting (which you can read reporting on here), CDOT will install a southbound contraflow bike lane between Winnemac and Leland, part of which will be protected by a concrete curb between Ainslie and Winnemac (replacing the parking on the west side of Ravenswood). Additionally, two raised crosswalks will be installed between Lawrence and Winnemac and a pedestrian refuge island on Lawrence at Ravenswood to improve visibility and safety for crossing pedestrians.

Finally, this project will create space for the planned expansion of the Winnslie Parkway community garden from Ainslie to Lawrence. This will provide 1,000 new feet of pedestrian paths to the Ravenswood Metra Station in a new community-run garden (see here). To accommodate these improvements, CDOT will convert diagonal parking into parallel parking spaces along the tracks on the west side of Ravenswood between Ainslie and Lawrence. This will result in a reduction of roughly 25 parking spaces on that stretch. 

Construction is expected to begin on 5/26. Crews will first work on curbs (repairing them and proceeding with the parkway expansion mentioned above) for several weeks, starting at Peterson and moving south. They will then remove the old asphalt and repave the street – expect a 2-3 week delay between those two actions, as utility companies repair and adjust manholes and other structures. They will finally return at the end of the project to install the bike lane curb between Ainslie and Winnemac, refuge island at Lawrence, and raised crosswalks. Please note that CDOT anticipates temporary closures of Ravenswood north of Lawrence for the construction of the raised crosswalks.

Update (10/8/25):

Crews still plan to start work building the two raised crosswalks across the 4800 block of N. Ravenswood, between Lawrence and Ainslie. However, they have not yet received the necessary permits from CDOT, so this work was not yet able to take place. Crews will tell us when they receive the necessary permits.

This work will require them to dig across the street in both locations, which means they will need to fully close the 4800 block to traffic for one week. They do not yet know exactly which day this will start, as they are waiting for the relevant permit to be issued.

Please keep an eye out for No Parking signs to ensure that you remove your vehicle from the block before it is shut down.