Major travel delays are expected to begin Tuesday and last through December on a section of the Bishop Ford Freeway, or Interstate 94, that runs through the South Side and south suburbs as an Illinois Department of Transportation construction project begins.
IDOT officials strongly encouraged drivers to take alternate routes and posted detours while 9.5 miles of outbound lanes from west of Martin Luther King Drive to 159th Street are closed for patching and resurfacing.
Road shoulders will be used to keep two lanes open, said Guy Tridgell, IDOT communications director.
The construction is part of a $93 million rehabilitation project that aims to improve safety, traffic flow and reliability for the more than 167,000 vehicles that use the expressway each day.
“These improvements the next two years will result in a safer, more reliable road for you and your families,” Illinois Transportation Secretary Gia Biagi said in a statement. “Please slow down when approaching and traveling through the work zone, put down devices and stay patient.”
The construction zone runs through Chicago, Dolton, Burnham, Riverdale, Calumet City and South Holland.
IDOT officials said drivers can expect delays and should allow extra time for trips through this area during construction. Officials also encouraged drivers to pay close attention to flaggers and signs in the work zones, obey the posted speed limits and be on the alert for workers and equipment.
The freeway will return to three lanes, and ramps will reopen in December, according to an IDOT statement.
The same rehabilitation will begin on inbound lanes starting Spring 2027, which will again reduce the freeway to two lanes through December that year, according to Tridgell.
Beginning Tuesday, ramps will be closed from the outbound Bishop Ford to eastbound Dolton Avenue; the westbound 159th Street ramp to the outbound Bishop Ford; and the inbound Bishop Ford ramp to eastbound Sibley Boulevard.
A detour will direct traffic to exit at westbound Sibley Boulevard, reenter the Bishop Ford outbound and then exit to eastbound Sibley Boulevard.
Additional ramps and lanes will also occasionally be closed overnight and during weekends, according to an IDOT statement.
Because I-94 is generally an east-west route, IDOT marks directions as eastbound or westbound. But because the interstate runs north and south through Chicago, eastbound is actually traveling south, or outbound, and westbound is traveling north, or inbound to the city.
The project also includes rehabilitation for bridges carrying the Bishop Ford over the Indiana Harbor Belt railroad, Dolton Avenue, Greenwood Avenue and the two bridges over the Little Calumet River.
As part of advance work, the Michigan City Road bridge over the Bishop Ford closed in August and is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, said IDOT.
The Michigan City Road, 154th Street and U.S. 6 overpasses will also be rehabilitated, according to an IDOT statement.
The project includes replacing overhead sign structures and installing new LED lighting.
Tridgell said the expressway is one of the more critical corridors in the region and handles a lot of freight activity, which he said causes significant use on the pavement.
The road had exceeded its life cycle and had not received major work since 2015, he said.
“The Bishop Ford Freeway is critical to the movement of goods and people throughout the region, but in need of reinvestment and repair,” said Biagi.
The Bishop Ford Freeway, originally named the Calumet Expressway, opened in 1950.
IDOT said questions and comments can be submitted to the project team at https://idot.click/Bishop-Ford. Traffic and road conditions can be found at www.gettingaroundillinois.com.
awright@chicagotribune.com
