“Travel delays are anticipated — alternative routes strongly encouraged,” begins the press release announcing the city of Chicago’s massive renovation of the northern Kennedy Expressway. Indeed, travel delays abound as drivers attempt to find alternate routes — or brave being bottlenecked into two lanes on the eastbound highway. But even alternate routes like Milwaukee or Elston Avenue offer little relief; the “trickle-down effect” of the Kennedy’s traffic results in congestion on every other possible route. Unfortunately for Chicago commuters, this is a multi-year, multi-stage rehabilitation project — and we are currently in Stage 1.
As we are currently witnessing, Stage 1 is construction and repainting of the inbound Kennedy, with the express lanes remaining open in the inbound direction for the entirety of this phase. This is intended to be completed late this fall, with a complete reopening of all lanes and normal operation of the reversible express lanes to follow. We will then have a few months of normal highway flow, to be interrupted by Stage 2 in spring 2024. This stage involves the rehabilitation of the express lanes, formally called the Reversible Lane Access Control (REVLAC) system, which will be closed in both directions until the late fall — likely equaling terrible traffic during morning rush hour in the inbound direction and evening rush hour in the outbound direction, and thus congestion of our favorite alternate routes as well. Finally, spring 2025 will bring Stage 3, rehabilitation of the outbound Kennedy — leading to the same issues occuring now on the inbound.
This is not favorable. Luckily, this construction will not be causing delays for three years straight, as construction will cease for the late fall and winter months between each stage of construction. But that doesn’t minimize the overall impact on traffic nor on drivers’ frustration; traffic has experienced a 6.7% increase just from spring 2022 to spring 2023, based on data collected by the navigation app Waze.
Exacerbating this, the blue line is being renovated near the Forest Park branch, posing travel hindrances for many Whitney Young students. A bus shuttle running along the path of the blue line has been added to accommodate commuters, as well as additional train cars on the Green Line, which runs parallel to the Blue Line and which the CTA has encouraged riders to use. Luckily, most of the construction has actually been completed; the Racine station entrance on Loomis (nearest to Whitney Young) is expected to open early October — and then close again for further construction in 2025. But, there’s no denying that the absence of a convenient train stop added to vehicle traffic in the area surrounding the school, and perhaps to the traffic plaguing the rest of Chicago, leading many — including myself — to find obscure, wrap-around routes to school.
Regardless of the various construction projects underway in the city, Chicago just isn’t the same without its maddening traffic — and so Chicagoans will persevere.
