The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) announced on Feb. 17 that construction of a new flyover bridge as part of the ongoing Jane Byrne Interchange reconstruction is scheduled to begin, weather permitting, on March 7.
The start of the project, which involves building a new bridge connecting the inbound Dan Ryan Expressway (I-90/94) to the outbound Eisenhower Expressway (I-290), will require several lane and ramp closures until Summer 2016.
The flyover will replace the existing single-lane, winding ramp with a two-lane ramp and bridge that begins just south of Roosevelt Road and arches over Harrison Street, the rest of the Jane Byrne Interchange, and Halsted Street, before connecting to the outbound Eisenhower near Morgan Street. From ramp to ramp, the entire structure will be about 1 mile in length. Additional components of the project include enhanced lighting and signage.
Later this summer and fall, IDOT, in conjunction with the city of Chicago, will be scheduling closures on some parts of the expressway system at the Jane Byrne Interchange to facilitate the placement of the flyover’s beams.
Once complete, the flyover will improve efficiency, traffic flow and safety for the approximately 400,000 motorists that drive through the Jane Byrne Interchange each day.
The four-year, $475 million overhaul of the Jane Byrne Interchange will relieve congestion at one of the country’s worst bottlenecks. The interchange where the Dan Ryan, Eisenhower and Kennedy expressways and Congress Parkway meet was built in the 1950s and 1960s, and has long outlived its original design. The project includes upgrading the surrounding bridge, roadway and drainage systems. The improvements are estimated to reduce traffic delays by at least 50%, saving motorists an anticipated 5 million hours in travel time and 1.6 million gal of gas each year.
For more information on the Jane Byrne Interchange, including a live, streaming high-resolution view of the project, visit www.CircleInterchange.org.
