State and local transportation officials today unveiled plans for roadway construction projects for the spring and summer months.
While construction on the intersection of 127th Street, Cicero Avenue and the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate Highway 294) near Alsip begins Thursday, three major road projects that undoubtedly will bog down traffic are looming on the horizon, said Bruce Dinkheller, project implementation engineer at the Illinois Department of Transportation.
The project with the most potential to snarl traffic is IDOT’s plan to rebuild six bridges along the Bishop Ford Expressway between Interstate Highway 57 and Stony Island Avenue near Dolton. As of April 1, traffic will be reduced to one lane each way for cars and light trucks. Heavy trucks will be detoured to a separate lane that was built last year and bypasses the strip entirely. The rebuilding and widening of the six bridges, which will cost the state $11.3 million, should be completed by November, according to IDOT officials.
The second year of construction on the notorious Hillside Strangler is set to kick off March 15 as crews build a new two-lane road from the East-West Tollway (Interstate Highway 88) and the Eisenhower Expressway (Interstate Highway 290) to Mannheim Road to ease ramp congestion. The Westchester Boulevard Bridge over I-290 also will be replaced and widened during the construction, which is expected to last until the end of the year.
In downtown Chicago, IDOT and the Chicago Department of Transportation will begin nighttime work in June on the resurfacing of Interstate Highways 90/94 between the Hubbard’s Cave and I-290. Resurfacing work, which will begin each night at 9 p.m. and finish up by 6 a.m., will take up to eight weeks as IDOT crews strip the pavement and apply one layer of asphalt to the roadway.
When that is completed, the city is expected to start rebuilding several bridges that span I-90/94 . City officials said only three weeks of nighttime work will be needed to tear down and rebuild the structures. Once preliminary steel work is completed, crews will work from above the highways to finish the bridges. Then, IDOT crews will return to apply a second layer of asphalt to I-90/94.
When work is complete in June 2002, only a southbound exit at Monroe Street will remain and both the northbound and southbound entrance ramps to I-90/94 will be closed permanently. IDOT’s Dinkheller said the decision to close the entrances and exits was made with an eye toward driver safety as that area continually ranks among the leaders in the number of vehicle accidents.
