02-05-2025
Phase 3 of Kennedy Expressway work is on schedule, but has drivers frustrated
Kennedy Expressway construction work has been back in action this spring, and some commuters are fit to be tied.
"A parking lot," one wrote on the Illinois Department of Transportation Facebook page on the Kennedy Construction Project.
"Will this be completed by 2035?" another wrote.
"Total BS," wrote a third.
If there is any good news for drivers, IDOT said it is on track to finish the final phase of the project before Thanksgiving — not Thanksgiving 2035, but Thanksgiving this year, 2025. That is the very timeline they had in the beginning.
But for drivers, that does not make taking the Kennedy any quicker in the meantime.
Drivers moving only inches is the headache many are experiencing on the inbound lanes of the Kennedy. The two left lanes have been closed since March, so drivers can only take the two right lanes to O'Hare International Airport, and the express lanes to the Edens Expressway, from the Loop.
"It makes me question living in Chicago," said Katie Conklin.
Conklin is a frequent flyer on I-90, spending two hours a day in traffic. It is in that time she asks a question many might have when she doesn't actually see any work actively going on.
"Are there people working?" she said. "Because I need to make myself feel better about living through this, and making sure that there's an end."
Jon Schumacher of the Illinois Department of Transportation said contractors have indeed been hitting the dates. While it might not always look like it, Schumacher said there are 75 workers putting in 10-hour shifts each day.
"You definitely don't see everybody, because there is a substantial amount of work going on beneath the structures as well," he said.
Schumacher said IDOT is currently repairing concrete piers and beams beneath bridges. But its crews are also repaving the interstate.
Under the Kennedy pavement, workers are replacing joints and bridge deck overlays, which IDOT said are toward the end of their lifespan.
This is the third phase of the Kennedy reconstruction project, and it is already 10% to 20% complete.
"Just to extend the life of the bridges another 20 to 30 years," Schumacher said.
Schumacher added that if there is any silver lining, in a couple of months, drivers to O'Hare will be able to take the express lanes.
"At some point here later this summer, we're going to be opening that ramp back up to the local lanes, so we're going to see probably a little more equalization between the locals and the reversible lanes," he said.
As for drivers like Conklin, she said at this point, she has been at the same point before during earlier phases of the Kennedy project.
"I'm telling myself, like, I can make it through the last phase. I did it all three years. So this is it, right?" she said. "Like I've got seven months to go."
IDOT also said there will be ramp closures likely coming after July. The department said it will give out dates and locations before that happens.
