Construction Boom Shutters Chapel Lanes, Sidewalk For 16 Months

Ray Shaw hustled out of the rain and back towards his city transit department van after turning off the parking meters on an eastbound block of Chapel Street that will be closed to car-and-foot traffic for the next 16 months to make way for the construction of 166 new downtown apartments.

Shaw dodged those raindrops and temporarily shuttered those meters Monday on the south side of Chapel Street near the intersection with Church.

That’s because, starting on Sunday, the two eastbound car lanes and most of the sidewalk on Chapel between Church and Orange Streets closed to accommodate work zones associated with the developments-in-the-works at 808 and 848 Chapel St. A Chicago-based real estate company is busy constructing one new building with 120 apartments and another new building with 46 apartments at those two long-vacant sites.

In a Saturday email press release, city spokesperson Lenny Speiller wrote that eastbound vehicular traffic will be detoured to Elm Street, westbound traffic will stay the same, and there will be no change to public bus routes. He also wrote that the sidewalk on the south side of Chapel will be closed and pedestrians will be detoured to the sidewalk on the north side of the block.

“The City continues to grow with two mixed-use residential buildings now under construction at 808 and 848 Chapel Street,” city Economic Development Administrator Mike Piscitelli wrote in a separate Saturday email press release.

“Thank you for your patience with an extended detour and please support all of our lower Chapel Street merchants during construction. For questions or issues with this work zone and staging plan, please contact Dan Holt at [email protected] or (860) 803‑5812. Please also feel free to contact Steve Fontana or Kathleen Krolak.”