Chicago, Illinois, United States
Chicago Pedway
The Chicago Pedway is a network of underground tunnels, overhead bridges and concourses linking more than 50 buildings and several rail stations across about 40 blocks of the Loop. It has no single owner: the City of Chicago built the first tunnels and its Transportation Department publishes the map, but each section is owned, maintained and opened on its own schedule by the building or agency above it.
Governance
Who owns it, who runs it, what the rules are.
- Owner
- The City of Chicago built the original 1951 tunnels between subway stations, and public and private investment has extended the network since. Each section is owned and maintained by the building above it, including City Hall, the Daley Center, Macy's, Block 37, transit stations and private office towers.
- Operator
- No single operator. Building owners and transit agencies run their own segments; the Chicago Department of Transportation publishes the system map and takes public questions about the Pedway.
- Hours
- Set by each building owner or agency. No common operating hours exist; for example, the section under the Richard J. Daley Center closes around 6 p.m., and the Chase Tower link is open only during workday hours.Not enforced[02]
- Public right
- No general public right of passage was found. Access is permissive and depends on each owner, and some former links have been closed, such as the bridge across Madison Street and the tunnels between Chase Tower and Two First National Plaza.
- Who pays
- Each building owner maintains its own section, which leads to uneven lighting, temperature and condition. Network-wide improvements have relied on federal grants obtained by the city and on fundraising by the Environmental Law & Policy Center.
Legal instruments
- Chicago Department of Transportation Pedway program ↗CDOT describes the Pedway as the city's downtown pedestrian walkway system, publishes its map and handles questions through a dedicated email address.[01]
- Transit Planning Study: Chicago Central Area (1968) and Chicago 21 Plan (1973) ↗City planning documents that called for Pedway expansion; they are plans, not binding ordinances.[04]
Governing bodies
Open issues
- There is no single authority to set common hours or maintenance standards, so early closures break through-routes.
- Heavy doors and broken fixtures make parts of the Pedway hard to use for people in wheelchairs, and repair funding was unresolved in 2020.
- Whether the 2019-funded signage and wayfinding programme was fully delivered has not been verified.
Timeline
- Mezzanine connector tunnels linking the State Street Subway to Dearborn Street open, the oldest Pedway-type corridors.[04]
- The City of Chicago builds one-block tunnels connecting the Red Line and Blue Line subways at Washington Street and Jackson Boulevard.[01]
- Pedway expansion is included in the Transit Planning Study for the Chicago central area, and later in the Chicago 21 Plan (1973).[04]
- Removal of Metra Electric turnstiles in November unites the main Loop network with the Illinois Center section through the rail platforms.[04]
- A study for the Environmental Law & Policy Center sets three priorities: better navigation, better coordination among building owners and better activation.[02]
- The city secures $4 million in federal funds for Pedway upgrades, including new signs and navigation tools.[02]
- A further $9 million in federal funds for structural repairs, including accessible doors, is reported as held up with no identified source.[02]
What it cost · who pays
- Federal funds for wayfinding and upgrades · 2019
- US$4 millionSecured in fall 2019; to fund new signs, maps and navigation tools on the main branch[02]
- Federal funds sought for structural repairs · 2020
- US$9 millionNot secured as of January 2020[02]
- ELPC fundraising for Pedway revitalisation · 2017
- US$125,000Raised by the Environmental Law & Policy Center[03]
The story
The Chicago Pedway began with the city's subway system. Connector tunnels between the State Street and Dearborn Street subways opened in 1943. In 1951 the City of Chicago built one-block tunnels linking the Red Line and Blue Line subways at Washington Street and Jackson Boulevard. Expansion was written into the 1968 Transit Planning Study for the central area and the 1973 Chicago 21 Plan.
Public and private investment has since stretched the network to about five miles under and above more than 40 blocks of the Loop. It connects more than 50 buildings, including City Hall, the Daley Center, Macy's and Block 37, and transit facilities serving the CTA, Metra, Amtrak and the South Shore Line. The eastern section around Illinois Center joined the main network in 2003, when Metra Electric turnstiles were removed.
Governance is fragmented. Each section is owned and maintained by the building above it, so lighting, temperature and condition vary. No authority sets common hours or maintenance standards. The section under the Daley Center closes around 6 p.m., cutting a commuter route to the western rail stations, and some links, such as the bridge across Madison Street, have been removed or closed when owners restricted access.
The Environmental Law & Policy Center has led efforts to revive the network. It raised $125,000 by 2017 and commissioned a study that called for better navigation, better coordination among building owners and more activity in the corridors. In 2019 the city secured $4 million in federal funds for new signs, maps and navigation tools. A further $9 million sought for structural repairs, including accessible doors, had no identified source as of January 2020.
Questions people ask
Who owns the Chicago Pedway?
How long is the Chicago Pedway?
What are the Chicago Pedway hours?
Who is trying to improve the Pedway?
Who do I contact about a Pedway problem?
Sources
- The Pedway: Downtown Pedestrian Walkway System — City of Chicago, Department of Transportationprimary
- Chicago's Pedway is a confusing underground labyrinth. But help is on the way. — Chicago Tribune (2020)
- Chicago's underground city that's becoming a design star — BBC Travel (2017)
- Chicago Pedway — Wikipedia
About this record
Confidence medium · reviewed 2026-10-19. Core facts come from the City of Chicago CDOT page and a 2020 Chicago Tribune column. No ordinance, easement or agreement governing Pedway segments was found; Chicago likely uses public-way use ordinances for tunnels under streets, but this was not verified. The ELPC study and plan documents themselves were not fetched, and the session's web search budget ran out before the outcome of the 2019 signage programme could be checked. The CDOT system map PDF (dated January 2026) returned 403 and may list segment hours. The 1943 and 2003 dates rely on Wikipedia statements marked as needing citations.
Map geometry: 1190 corridor features, © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), as of 2026-10-20. Levels come from OpenStreetMap tags and can be incomplete.
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© 2026 Open Civic Intelligence Ventures LLC. Quote with attribution and a link; terms.