Circle Interchange may get $375 million makeover
State looking into options to improve decades-old bottleneck that connects 3 expressways.
Vehicles maneuver through
the Circle Interchange, which connects the Eisenhower, Dan Ryan and
Kennedy expressways along with Congress Parkway in the Loop.
(E. Jason Wambsgans, Chicago Tribune / August 31, 2012
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A roomful of highway engineers along with commuters frustrated over wasting time and fuel in traffic doodled with colored markers on maps of the Circle Interchange to highlight scary and dangerous merges and stew over possible solutions to congestion.
The focus of their attention was five preliminary concepts, which could be expanded to dozens of variations when all is said and done, to redesign the Circle Interchange, which is a spaghetti bowl of ramps where the Kennedy, Dan Ryan and Eisenhower expressways converge, along with Congress Parkway, near downtown Chicago.
The preliminary concepts ranged from adding lanes and widening ramps to and from some of the expressways to an ambitious four-level interchange that would include building a tunnel under existing infrastructure and building ramps that soar several stories higher than today's concrete ribbons.
The Illinois Department of Transportation hopes to reach a final decision on a preferred alternative by next year and begin construction in 2014 or 2015 if money becomes available, said Steve Schilke, IDOT's project's manager for the Circle.
The cost will depend on the complexity of the chosen design, but Schilke threw out a ballpark figure of $375 million. IDOT hopes the federal government pays for 90 percent, he said.
The Circle, considered one of the worst bottlenecks in the nation, is operating over capacity with an average of more than 300,000 vehicles and three crashes daily, traffic data show. Delays caused by the interchange average almost 10 minutes a day per vehicle, for a combined 25 million hours annually, according to IDOT.
State transportation officials are conducting preliminary engineering and environmental studies to rehabilitate the Circle for the first time since it was built in the late 1950s and early 1960s, during the same time the Kennedy (originally named the Northwest Expressway) was constructed.
On Thursday, an open house was held at a hotel on South Ashland Avenue near the Eisenhower to inform the public about the planning process. The meeting also gave officials a chance to collect feedback from drivers ranging from commuters to trucking companies as well as business owners and residents of the downtown, Greektown, West Loop, University of Illinois at Chicago and Medical District communities.
As the connector artery between the three expressways, the interchange serves national freight traffic as well as local and regional trucking. It is the slowest and most congested highway freight bottleneck in the U.S., according to the Federal Highway Administration.
Its high traffic volumes, single-lane ramps and tight curves contribute to almost constant congestion and more than 1,100 crashes on average per year, officials said.
The redesign will look for ways to increase vehicle capacity and correct short traffic merges and short weaving distances within the tight footprint of the interchange, which is squeezed next to the CTA Blue Line's Halsted Street station and tunnel, the Cermak water pumping station and the Haberdasher Square Lofts, officials said.
Officials would not rule out acquiring private property for the project. But Schilke said: "Our goal is to not impact any buildings in this area.''
Truck traffic in the vicinity of the Circle has grown over the years to nearly 1 in 6 vehicles, officials said. The westbound Eisenhower carries an average of 9,900 trucks a day and the northbound Dan Ryan serves 16,000 trucks a day on average.
Traffic experts described a series of problems they would like to address.
Eastbound Eisenhower traffic encounters a triple decision point at the exit ramp to the Kennedy and Dan Ryan. Rapid lane changes contribute to rear-end and sideswipe crashes, officials said.
Traffic exiting the northbound Ryan has two lanes. The inside lane leads to the westbound Eisenhower, and the outside lane leads to eastbound Congress Parkway. Traffic congestion along the westbound Eisenhower ramp lines up into this area, and aggressive drivers use the outside lane intended for eastbound Congress to bypass the backup of westbound vehicles, officials said. Collisions occur when motorists cutin to the westbound Eisenhower.
The preliminary engineering work is expected to be finished by next spring, officials said. After the design for the interchange is approved, detailed construction plans will be developed. The timeline for construction will depend on funding.
IDOT and the Federal Highway Administration are the lead agencies for the project.
A joint venture of the AECOM and TranSystems companies is conducting the $40 million engineering analysis to identify possible improvements, the potential cost and a construction schedule, officials said.
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