Back to work Tuesday after a three-day weekend?
Put your road construction hat on while driving through downtown Chicago.
Madison Street at Wacker Drive closes around 10 a.m. Tuesday after morning rush hour. Pedestrians and vehicles, 14 Chicago Transit Authority bus routes, will be rerouted to Washington and Monroe.
"We understand this is a disruption," Department of Transportation head Gabe Klein said last week. "But it is a necessary disruption."
The Chicago Department of Transportation says the second phase of "Revive Wacker Drive," which encompasses the entire north/south portion of the roadway, is now 25 percent done, with upper Wacker -- between Randolph and Lake Streets -- now open.
Once the project is completed at the end of 2012, Wacker Drive will have new medians, wider sidewalks and an added foot and a half of height clearance.
The changes will make the artery safer, the Department of Transportation says.
"Sometimes people think it is about how fast you can go," Klein said. "It is actually about how many times you have to start, stop, and how effectively you can move."
