Reminder: road work will start hitting soon

03/30/2010 5:52 PM

By Micah Maidenberg
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The Ike is getting resurfaced. Beware of lane closures. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

It's no April Fool's Day joke -- three major roadway projects are set to begin in late March and early April, and officials are warning residents and commuters to take heed as shovels start hitting the ground. A fourth starts this summer.
A recap of the projects:

  • The Illinois Department of Transportation is resurfacing 27 miles of the Eisenhower Expressway between Thorndale and the Circle Interchange and repairing 37 bridge structures along I-290. Construction will take place on both inbound and outbound sides of the Ike, with workers closing down lanes to complete the repairs. Lane closures will start in early April.
  • IDOT is also responsible for renovating the Congress Parkway Bridge, a structure an agency press release calls "structurally deficient." All in and outbound traffic will initially be switched over to the westbound lanes while work starts on the eastbound side; next year, crews will work on the west and traffic will flow through the east. During construction, there will be two inbound lanes and one outbound lane. IDOT hopes to start this work March 31.
  • The Chicago Department of Transporation is rebuilding the upper and lower levels of north-south Wacker Drive between Randolph and Congress and adding green space to what's currently called Oscar D'Angelo Park. The project will start with lower-level utility work. Lower Wacker will be reduced to one lane in each direction. Ramps from inbound Congress to Wacker, and from Wacker to outbound Congress are scheduled to for closure in April. Reconstruction work will take place in 2011 and 2012.
  • CDOT will build out a streetscape on Congress Parkway between Wells and Michigan, adding new sidewalks, medians, planters, lighting and traffice signal upgrades. Construction is expected to start in the summer of 2010.

IDOT and CDOT have created Web sites with additional resources and information. For the Eisenhower Expressway resurfacing click here. Information about the Congress Parkway Bridge rehabilitation is here. Check out this site for information about the Wacker project, and here is where CDOT has posted a PDF about the Congress streetscape project.
Several neighborhood streets cutting through the South Loop and West Loop and Near West Side have been identified as alternative routes during the construction, as I noted in this March 1 post.
Quoting from that post: "A key alternative [route], according to maps (click for inbound and outbound) the Illinois Department of Transportation posted to its Web site, will be Roosevelt Road, between Sacramento on the west and Michigan on the east.
"IDOT has also selected an Adams-to-Ogden stretch for drivers heading outbound, while those driving into the Loop will be directed to cut through the Nest West Side and West Loop on Warren, a boulevard that turns into Washington east of Ashland.
"Michigan Avenue, between Washington and Roosevelt, will serve as a connector on the east to the alternative routes."



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