Metro, state finalize $50M of funds to begin designing and buying land for East Bank 'spine connector' boulevard

Metro has concluded that the existing layout of roads is ill-equipped to handle the volume of vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists who would go to or from River North and other projects in the development pipeline. Officials see a new boulevard, which they're calling a "spine connector," as vital to slicing through that jumbled, disjointed street grid in a way that would accommodate that future anticipated growth.