Downtown street closures begin ahead of NFL Draft

SHARE Downtown street closures begin ahead of NFL Draft

With little more than a week to go before football’s future finest converge on Chicago for the 2015 NFL Draft, drivers should be ready to tackle some traffic headaches downtown as crews prepare for the event.

Road closures near Grant Park and Roosevelt University began at 6 a.m. Wednsday, with Congress Parkway closed to traffic between Michigan and Columbus until May 8, according to the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Crews are prepping a “Draft Town” of outdoor fan activites for the April 30-May 2 event.

Closures expand next week starting at 6 a.m. on April 27, as Columbus will be shut down from Balbo to Jackson through May 4, officials said.

On April 30, additional closures from 3 p.m. through 11 p.m. include:

–Michigan between Balbo and Jackson

–Wabash between Harrison and Jackson

–Van Buren between Michigan and State

–Congress between Michigan and State

City planners urge drivers to be on the lookout for various no-parking zones in the area on the days of the draft.


The Latest
Antoine Perteet, 33, targeted victims on the dating app Grindr, according to Chicago police.
Glass-facade buildings can disorient birds in flight. The city is expected to update and revise rules for new developments and rehabbed buildings next month. But bird groups say the proposed guidelines need to be mandatory.
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.