City limits Loop access for 2nd night after looting

The city will limit access starting 9 p.m. Tuesday by raising bridges, shutting down parts of Lake Shore Drive and closing expressway ramps.

SHARE City limits Loop access for 2nd night after looting
A board-up crew works on the windows at the Louis Vuitton store at 919 N. Michigan Ave. after looting broke out overnight in the Loop and surrounding neighborhoods, Monday morning.

A board-up crew works on the windows at the Louis Vuitton store at 919 N. Michigan Ave. after looting broke out overnight in the Loop and surrounding neighborhoods Monday.

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

In an effort to prevent another night of looting downtown, Chicago will limit access to the Loop starting at 9 p.m. Tuesday by raising bridges, shutting down parts of Lake Shore Drive and closing expressway ramps.

The restrictions, which last until 6 a.m. Wednesday, are not a curfew, according to the Office of Emergency Management and Communication, but instead an “all-hands-on-deck” response to civil unrest early Monday following the police shooting of a man in Englewood.

Monday night, downtown restrictions were in effect an hour earlier at 8 p.m.

The restrictions include:

  • Lake Shore Drive closed between Fullerton Avenue and I-55;
  • All downtown bridges will be raised expect: LaSalle, Harrison, Ida B. Wells, Lake Shore Drive, Columbus, Kinzie and Grand;
  • CTA rail service will not stop downtown from Fullerton to 47th Street, and trains east of Halsted Street;
  • Bus service remains open, but may be affected by bridge closures;
  • Kennedy/Dan Ryan Expressway ramps closed from Cermak to Division;
  • Northbound Stevenson Expressway ramp to northbound Lake Shore Drive closed;
  • Eastbound Eisenhower Expressway closed at Ida B. Wells Drive;
  • Divvy service will be shut down between North, Ashland and Cermak.

“Access points,” manned by Chicago police, are for residents and workers, located at:

  • Harrison Street 
  • Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street 
  • Roosevelt Road and Canal Street 
  • Kinzie Street and Halsted Street 
  • LaSalle Street

The city also announced that more than 100 municipal trucks will be stationed in commercial corridors, including in surrounding neighborhoods, as a deterrent.

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