Months-long lane closures with traffic, congestion and backups officially returned to the Edens and Kennedy Expressways Tuesday morning, with two outbound lanes closed and no inbound express lanes open as part of the third phase of the Illinois Department of Transportation’s major rehabilitation project.
The project, originally billed at $150 million, is currently $19 million over budget, IDOT said last week, during a press conference. IDOT officials attributed the extra costs to additional patching and inner concrete wiring challenges.
The construction is expected to snarl traffic in and out of the city for at least nine months, with impacts to both inbound and outbound commutes. It will also have a major impact on drivers headed from the city to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, with a popular route from the express lanes no longer accessible as the work continues.
“It’s just a 7-mile stretch, but so crucial a corridor,” NBC 5 Traffic Reporter Kye Martin said.
As of 5 a.m. Tuesday, the look of the Kennedy Expressway from Division to Kostner was already filled with break lights, work crews, orange cones and large signs reminding drivers of the many closures ahead.
Martin noted the first few days of the project are expected to lead to some of the slowest morning commutes due to the “work zone going in gradually.”
“Give yourself extra time for two weeks while a new routine for thousands develops,” Martin said.
The closures come after the first phase of the project in 2023 closed inbound lanes on the busy expressway. In 2024, the second phase left the reversible express lanes closed in both directions, leading to heavy congestion and traffic headaches.
“It’s terrible,” one driver told NBC Chicago. “I’m talking totally time consuming.”
According IDOT, the work is meant to increase safety, reduce maintenance costs and improve traffic flow. The work is expected to last through the end of 2025, until at least Thanksgiving, officials said.
As the construction continues, here’s what drivers need to know.
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