City and NASCAR Announce Dates of Street Closures Prior to 4th of July Races

The NASCAR Chicago Street Race is undoubtedly going to be a big, unique event for the city - but as expected it likely will be a headache for those of us who live or spend a lot of time in the Sloop.

How much of a headache?  Well the city just released a list of street closures in and around Grant Park and it's going to be much longer than we expected (via Yahoo):

NASCAR's Chicago Street race is slated to take over the city for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, but the impacts for drivers will be felt long before and after the race is done.

Officials on Monday detailed a traffic plan, featuring more than a month of rolling closures around the city in the lead-up and tear-down for the first-time event.

Closures will include major roadways like DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Columbus Drive, Jackson Drive, Balbo Drive and Michigan Avenue and are expected to kick off on June 2 and continue through July 15, adding to a long list of traffic disruptions for drivers in the city already battling major construction projects on the Kennedy Expressway and elsewhere.

The biggest interruptions are slated to begin on June 25. (Full list of closures at link)

On top of the closures, officials said they expect roughly 50,000 people to attend each day of the two-day event.

Yikes - a month and a half of street closures will likely be pretty disruptive.  Yes, maybe some of the closures early on are small swaths of streets, but still will be confusing and painful.  

(Hat tip:  Mitch!)