Washington St. Enterance

[[jonrev]]

Why is that enterance always closed? It's the enterance under AE for those who don't know.

[Rusty888]

i've been wondering that too

[Carlo]

Washington Street is only open for exiting at night time. As far as I know the city of Gurnee does not want them to open that entrance up because they do not want traffic on Washington Street.

[Binks Drake]

It's been closed since 9/11. But they use it for construction traffic. Nothing else. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if they used this road area for future expansion in later years.

[Chitown]

Gurnee had nothing to due with the park closing the Washington St. entrance. In fact, the mayor of Gurnee questioned why it remained closed as an entrance.

The park blamed 9/11 saying not enough security is on that stretch of road between the road and Washington St. (it hides basically).

Now it seems the park just doesn't want to man security and toll booth attendants for that entrance.

As Blinks Drake said and I agree that this will be used for future expansion especially for Hurricane Harbor.

[Binks Drake]

Why can't anyone on this whole website spell my name right?

[CoasterDude12-2]

Hold on...Biinks Drake!

[Binks Drake]

GRRRR

[FParker185]

while expanding the waterpark into that area would be great, they do still use that as an exit, and almost has to due to the huge volume of cars the lot can hold. One enterance does fine as people dont all show up at once, but at close on busy days an alternative route is almost necessary, though I guess they could route people though the E-lot if they did happen to expand down that road.

[twixmix0303]

In the morning the line of cars can back up pretty far down the expressway. I suppose they could do a double left turn lane there since Washington Street is two lanes to the east of that entrance. Personally, what I would have liked to see is to have the main road come in where it is now, sweep around the hill to the right and down the very back of the overflow lot and make the main lot one big lot with pull through spaces. It would definately be much safer than trying to cross the main entrance road from the overflow lot to the front gates.

[Chitown]

Been saying that for awhile. Take a look at SFSTl's lot and you have the answer.

[coasterfan71555]

The Washington Street entrance was closed after the 9/11 attacks for security reasons. This is because the roadway passes under the American Eagle, and it was feared that the ride could become a terrorist target. I used that entrance all the time before I moved, because I used to take Washington from the west. Now that I live south of SFGAm, it is easier to enter from Grand anyway. Not that many used the Washington entrance, mainly the "locals" who know the area. I remember leaving the park years ago through the Washington gate, and the security people would often divert traffic that way to minimize impact on Grand, and I would often see people make u-turns and not be able to figure where to go once they were out on the highway!

[twixmix0303]

/\ Same here. Although for exiting it's pretty easy to take a right on Grand and shoot down 21. A few extra minutes but not too long. It just makes me swear at the idiots who pull up to the right turn lane before realizing they have to turn left so they'll sit there like a duck until someone will let them in. Then you're stuck behind them.

[Trailblazer Tony]

I was kind of wondering if it would be possible to have the exit lanes off the expressway lead straight into the parking lot somehow. It is probably not possible, but it would be nice for the gurnee residents and park guests.

[Chitown]

Actually, that thought was proposed by the Tollway if they could build a tollbooth just south of the Rte 132 exit. Obviously that tollbooth idea was rejected after public outcry.

I would rather not see the tollbooth south of Rte 132 and deal with not having a separate entrance to the park.

[twixmix0303]

Call me crazy, but I think it would be cool if you could use your I-PASS at the Six Flags tollbooth. Think of how much time you'd save driving into the park if at least half the cars didn't have to stop to pay. The only problem with this is a company that is $2.2 billion in debt wouldn't want to fund a project like this. You'd also have to find a way around parking passes, but that shouldn't be too difficult. (Basically, have the attendant void the charge.)

[SFaddiction84]

Basicly THEY NEED to designate 1 of the tollbothwindow at the parking lot entrance for ALL people with Parking PASSES!!!! It would make so much easier

[Raging Bull 4 life]

Great Idea

[twixmix0303]

There was a topic a while back discussing parking garages. While parking garages would free up a lot of space, what would be cheaper and should produce plenty of extra room for parking would be something like this:



It might cost as much as $3 million or so (there are about 20 small houses that would be taken over and demolished plus the vacant land all the way to the north) plus expenses to actually build the lot (I have no idea how much that would cost) so it would be pretty expensive but probably much cheaper than a parking garage. Plus, if people are only coming for a few hours as many locals do they won't have to deal with the chaos of parking garages.

[Shockwavegirl]

Apparently, as I noticed on Saturday, the nearly 50,000 people attendance day, the Washington St. entrance was used as overflow parking. Those poor people had to parallel park on the street and walk ALL THE WAY AROUND to the front gates.

[diggerg56]

Basicly THEY NEED to designate 1 of the tollbothwindow at the parking lot entrance for ALL people with Parking PASSES!!!! It would make so much easier

That is a great idea...Most of us with parking passes don't need to be handed a map either so that would be very speedy.

[Mr. D.T.]

Apparently, as I noticed on Saturday, the nearly 50,000 people attendance day, the Washington St. entrance was used as overflow parking. Those poor people had to parallel park on the street and walk ALL THE WAY AROUND to the front gates.

...and walk from the employee lot around the storage buildings all the way to the Main Gate! Maybe they need tram service again. Know what, maybe parking garages wouldn't sound bad after all.

[kahmooza]

Basicly THEY NEED to designate 1 of the tollbothwindow at the parking lot entrance for ALL people with Parking PASSES!!!! It would make so much easier

That is a great idea...Most of us with parking passes don't need to be handed a map either so that would be very speedy.

Would never work. People don't read.

[twixmix0303]

The image should now work. I had to disable hotlink protection.

[w00dland]

Guys, how many days a year will the park get 50,000 in attendance?

I'd say maybe 3 times. That's not worth a parking garage, atleast not yet.

EDIT:

:::points down::: LOL.