CHICAGO — The Illinois Department of Transportation is taking a scientific rather than a crystal clear approach to defining when the current phase of the Kennedy Expressway construction project will finish and drivers will finally be able to use the refurbished reversible lanes.
“Late fall” is the verbiage an IDOT spokesperson has been using for months, and when pressed for the definition of “fall,” reporters are reminded the winter solstice doesn’t actually occur until December 21st.
IDOT still does not have a specific completion date for this phase of the project, according to spokesperson Maria Castaneda. The reversible lanes have been closed since March leading to travel times between O’Hare International Airport and downtown that can sometimes soar to 90 minutes.
WGN Investigates filed a Freedom of Information Act request for updates that are shared by the contractor with IDOT officials. The reports all list a project completion date of October 31, 2024 which would appear to indicate the re-opening is behind schedule.
However, an IDOT spokesperson insists the project is not delayed.
“While construction contracts do list a general targeted completion date, those dates, especially with large projects such as this one, are an estimate and not always indicative of a project’s actual duration,” IDOT’s Castaneda wrote in response to questions from WGN Investigates. “There are many factors involved, such as weather, materials delivery and other supply chain issues, unanticipated additional work, coordination around special events, etc…,” she wrote.
The pavement has been drivable since mid-August when the reversible lanes were used to escort VIPs to and from O’Hare airport during the Democratic National Convention. Since then, much of the work has been on fiber optic cabling and communications systems that allow the lanes to be switched from inbound to outbound remotely.
The progress reports reviewed by WGN Investigates do not offer a glimpse into any setbacks. Instead they simply relay workers’ activities and daily weather conditions.
IDOT says most of the work happening now is not visible to drivers, even if they’re rolling along at a snail’s pace in the construction zone. The remaining work includes installing and integrating cameras and testing the technology that operates the reversible lanes.
The reversible lane project is the second of three phases of a three year, $150M rehabilitation of the Kennedy Expressway. The final phase will begin in 2025 and involve work on the outbound lanes of the Kennedy Expressway.
