Abordnet

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0501210233jan21,1,467805... The most expensive option would cover the highway between Harlem Av and Austin Av (the entire length within the Village), with development air rights. Any thoughts?

Yep, I am very familiar with this study and some of the people who are working on it. The article doesn't mention that the Ike is only 6 lanes (3 in each direction) in this section and is usually a motorist's nightmare with several hours of gridlock per day, even in reverse-commute mode.  As a result of community involvement (Oak Park is sometimes referred to as a village of planners ), the cap study, additional transit improvements, and other amenities are being looked at by the study.  The original impetus of the study was to look at adding a lane in each direction; it is likely to be Chicago's first-ever HOV lane if a lane-addition makes it to the final EIS.  Some critics of OP's involvement think the village is holding the larger pool of commuters hostage by insisting on expensive amenities and transit enhancements that really won't make a dent in their daily grind; however, OP is an established community with a long history of higher-degree-than-usual citizen involvement  and they are savvy to the emerging culture of Context Sensitivity in transportation planning. The Hillside Strangler project at the I-290-88-294 interchange (which helped former Gov. George Ryan get elected in 1998) fixed some problems to the west of this project, but the bottleneck to the east remains. Rick Powell IDOT District 3

Any thoughts? How about they use that money to widen it instead!

to the west of this project, but the bottleneck to the east remains. Rick Powell IDOT District 3 Project website: http://www.eisenhowerexpressway.com/ Map: http://www.eisenhowerexpressway.com/project_overview/safety_map.asp Western access to the Loop is the most capacity challenged of the Chicago metro. Twelve lanes of I-290 and I-88 feed into this six lane stretch. The CTA only extends to Forest Park. The two Metra lines (UP-West, BNSF) in the corridor are limited by very heavy freight loads. In order not to take anymore of Oak Park won't the CTA line have to go under/over the highway to add the additional lanes? Is a stacked expressway an option? Would a two lane reversible (like the Kennedy) be a better option than HOV lanes? This section of the Ike also bisects Concordia and Forest Home cemeteries. The original construction moved more than 4000 graves. While widening won't take that amount it will be a PR concern and add additional time and cost.   http://www.graveyards.com/concordia/

Project website: http://www.eisenhowerexpressway.com/ Map: http://www.eisenhowerexpressway.com/project_overview/safety_map.asp Western access to the Loop is the most capacity challenged of the Chicago metro. Twelve lanes of I-290 and I-88 feed into this six lane stretch. The CTA only extends to Forest Park. The two Metra lines (UP-West, BNSF) in the corridor are limited by very heavy freight loads. In order not to take anymore of Oak Park won't the CTA line have to go under/over the highway to add the additional lanes? Is a stacked expressway an option? Would a two lane reversible (like the Kennedy) be a better option than HOV lanes? Not only is the CTA there, but also the BOCT line (making this a truly busy transportation corridor), or has that one been recently abandoned? It carries(d?) WC freight traffic to/from the railroad's interchanges in the Chicagoland area. Also, the bridges where the 'Ike' goes under those railroads west of Oak Park will have to be lengthened, a super-major project in itself.

Reversibles on the existing lanes wouldn't work very well IMO.  There's an increasing amount of reverse-commuting from Chicago and the near-west suburbs to job-rich DuPage County as well as the traditional Loop commute, due to the changing patterns of job growth in the area. Rick Powell IDOT District 3