From: ahk@chinet.com   
      
   http://faa.gov/airports/airport_development/omp/planning/MP/OAMP   
   Media/Appendix_E-02.pdf   
      
   I found this lovely diagram from 2003. I have no idea what's changed in   
   the O'Hare Modernization Program subsequently.   
      
   Today is the last day of People Mover (Airport Transportation System)   
   operation between Terminal 5 (international) and Remote Parking Lot E.   
   There will be a shut down of up to four months. It's being reconstructed   
   over Kennedy Expressway I-190, in part for extension of Balmoral Avenue   
   onto the airport campus, which will run close to the expresway, north of   
   the People Mover maintenance facility, which is where you see the loop track.   
      
   Terminal 5 and People Mover opened 20 years ago. Note that all the ramps   
   are being torn out and reconfigured, sigh. The current ramp to southbound   
   Mannheim Road will be torn out, including the bridge over the service   
   road, and then re-linked to the new Balmoral Avenue. Mannheim Road is   
   being widened as we speak, three lanes in each direction plus merging   
   lanes, and the tight radius ramps in the full interchange with Kennedy   
   Expressway are being replaced with ramps with more generous radii, which   
   requires a new subway under CN-WC and the approaches to Schiller Park Yard   
   (which is mostly a CP yard, btw).   
      
   Also noticed that the People Mover extension to Remote Parking Lot F   
   and Metra North Central O'Hare Transfer station includes a new yard,   
   which doesn't make any sense. I have no idea what the plan has for all   
   that land east of the International Terminal, but it's all built up with   
   airport functions like a police station, the People Mover yard, and a   
   heliport. The map indicates that there will be a massive paved area.   
      
   Did I mention that all the transportation infrastructure being ripped out   
   is just 20 years old? I don't understand why we're not using the whatever   
   plan there was for airport expansion from 1993, which must have left   
   plenty of open rights of way for various roads and ramps. We could have   
   all the infrastructure we desire if only we stop building infrastructure   
   intended to rip it out while it's still useful.   
      
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