2-year Dan Ryan project wraps up
EXTRA LANES | From 47th to 95th, commuters have more room
By the time you drive to work this morning, all lanes on the Dan Ryan Expy. should be open -- ending two years of construction on the Chicago area's busiest expressway, state officials announced Thursday.
There's still some lane striping to be done overnight on the southern end of the Ryan, where it meets Interstate 57. But the Illinois Department of Transportation expects all lanes to be open to traffic by this morning at the earliest or Saturday morning at the latest, depending on the weather.
(John H. White/Sun-Times)
Either way, mainline construction on the $975 million project will be wrapping up a few days ahead of IDOT's Oct. 31 deadline.
IDOT Chief of Staff Clayton Harris III said "people taking the alternate routes, people taking public transportation and people slowing down in the work zone ... helped us" finish the project on time.
The Dan Ryan now has an extra lane in each direction from 47th Street to 95th Street. Not only is the expressway wider, work crews also made it thicker, so that the Ryan shouldn't need another makeover for at least 30 years.
All that's left to be done in 2008 and 2009 is off-road landscaping and the installation of concrete walls along the frontage roads.
Drivers tempted to speed on the newly reconstructed Ryan should think twice: The speed limit for the local lanes will remain at 45 mph permanently, while the speed limit on the express lanes returns to 55 mph.
Illinois State Police wrote more than 8,000 speeding tickets while the Dan Ryan was under construction. The City of Chicago also towed 15,867 vehicles for violating the rush-hour parking ban on alternate routes to the expressway, the Streets and Sanitation Department said.
The Dan Ryan reconstruction was completed on time, but the price tag soared -- from the$600 millionofficials were using as recently as last year -- because of changes in the scope of the work, IDOT has said.
To thank South Siders for their patience with the project, IDOT is providing free auto inspections and child safety seat checks.
Scheduled dates are Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Progressive Baptist Church, 3658 S. Wentworth; Oct. 30, from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Chatham Ridge Mall, 87th and the Dan Ryan, and Nov. 1, from 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Providence of God Church, 717 W. 18th St.
