LIL’ BUDDY’S BLOG – Kennedy Expressway Suicide Ramps Soon To Become History!
LIL’ BUDDY’S BLOG – Kennedy Expressway Suicide Ramps Soon To Become History!
THE CHICAGO IL REAL ESTATE MARKET AND OTHER THINGS CHICAGO FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF A LITTLE WHITE DOG!
Sorry – I am bit tardy with my post this week. Last night got home after a long day on the road and just collapsed – in my little green bed on the living room floor! I don’t even remember watching the ten o’clock news – can you believe it?
As you might imagine this year with things bustling in the Chicago Real Estate Market especially with Lower-Priced and Distressed Properties in many Chicago Neighborhoods I’ve traveled the venerable Kennedy Expressway (I-90/94) to travel to and from my listings and sales.
If you live in or near Chicago and you drive you know the Kennedy can be a traffic snarled-nightmare – especially close to Downtown Chicago and The Loop – pretty much round the clock.
Rush Hour? You’ve got to be kidding me! Perhaps only one NON-Rush Hour around 3 AM Sunday mornings!
You also know driving parts of the Kennedy Expressway can pose its dangers – one being what have been frustratingly referred to as the Kennedy Suicide Entrance Ramps which provide access to the highway from several main streets just west of downtown.
From Lake Street on the North to Jackson Boulevard on the south – only 5 blocks away – several left-side descending entrance ramps require split-second timing to navigate when you are entering the expressway to travel outbound from The Loop. Merge too quickly or too slowly and you risk side-swiping cars already on the expressway or slamming into a concrete pylon. Drive too slowly and you’ll get rear ended by others behind you on the ramp.
Of all my Driving Lessons with my Human Daddy Team Leader Dean navigating these Kennedy Entrance Ramps seemed to get Dad the most nervous. It’s tough enough to handle these if you’re a full-grown human! If you’re an 11-pound dog it’s vastly more difficult!
Every year according to Jon Hilkevitch in his "Getting Around" column this week in the Chicago Tribune literally hundreds of crashes take place on these "Suicide Merge Ramps" according to Chicago Transportation Officials. Here in Chicago The Kennedy is our second busiest expressway second only to the Dan Ryan which travels southward out of Downtown Chicago.
These dangerous ramps have been part of driver’s harried lives around Chicago since the 1960’s. But now with the help of money from the Federal Stimulus Program these troublesome ramps are about to get a safer reconfiguration.
Work began earlier this week to alleviate these traffic choke points first with several exit ramps near the Hubbard’s Cave tunnel just north of downtown. (BTW . . . Hubbard’s Cave is named for Hubbard Street which passes over the expressway at that point but you dogs probably knew that already right?)
The construction here will allow for more gradual maneuvering to exit the expressway and hopefully avoid those crazy drivers who swing across multiple lanes of traffic at the very last moment needing to exit to a major street downtown.
After these exit lanes are reconfigured sometime in September crews will start to overhaul the troublesome short entrance ramps downtown to allow for better driver site lines and more gradual acceleration to merge with proceeding traffic. When construction is completed – sometime before Thanksgiving – kinder gentler downtown Kennedy Expressway Entrance Ramps will be in place at Lake Randolph and Madison Streets eastbound and and Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard westbound.
The remaining hulks of the old Washington Boulevard and Monroe Street Entrance Ramps to The Kennedy closed several years ago will be finally removed to make way for the longer easier-to-navigate entrance ramps.
Unfortunately you dogs the Downtown Kennedy Expressway Entrance Ramps will still be at the middle of the expressway – lack of available land downtown prevents ramp expansion on either side of the highway. Near The Loop the just-over one-mile stretch of road between Hubbard’s Cave on the north and Congress Street and the Eisenhower Expressway on the south (I-290) features 17 access ramps. Each day these ramps accommodate as many as 260000 vehicles according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.
After the Jackson Adams and Monroe Street Exit Ramps are completed by September work will begin on the treacherous entrance ramps downtown. During this phase of the construction one lane of The Kennedy will be closed in each direction downtown between Lake and Van Buren Streets.
And you dogs you might have guessed one little side effect of all this roadwork in Downtown Chicago – even more paw-wringing traffic tie ups as you approach and travel through downtown.
Tell me . . . why do we live and drive in Chicago?
Keep those paws on the wheel – and be safe!
YOUR ACE REPORTER ON FOUR PAWS
BUDDY HOLLY MOSS & DEAN’S TEAM CHICAGO
