 Blagojevich was joined by Illinois Department of Transportation
Secretary Milton R. Sees, IDOT engineers and community leaders from
Chicago's South Side at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. All lanes of
the 11-mile expressway were expected to be open overnight Thursday,
weather permitting, ahead of the Oct. 31 completion date."The
complexity of this project, combined with our commitment to
respecting the residents who live near the Dan Ryan, required an
unprecedented effort," said Blagojevich "We're very proud of our
work on the Dan Ryan, and now the entire region stands to benefit
from a safer, wider and less congested expressway."
"The successful completion of the Dan Ryan Reconstruction Project
required a remarkable degree of coordination and teamwork," said
Sees. "By working with the community and the city of Chicago, we
have built a safer expressway, we built a stronger community, and we
have built a brighter future for the entire region."
The Dan Ryan project has been recognized as one of the largest
"green" construction projects in the nation, breaking new ground by
requiring that contractors use ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel or
retrofit construction equipment to reduce emissions. IDOT also
required contractors to limit idling of trucks and has created a
state-of-the-art network of air-quality monitoring stations along
the expressway.
In addition, the Blagojevich administration raised the bar for
minority participation on the Dan Ryan project, reaching a historic
high for a major IDOT construction project, with 20 percent of
contracts being awarded to disadvantaged business enterprises. The
work force on the Dan Ryan project was 50 percent minority,
according to surveys conducted by IDOT.
In the past two years, IDOT has completely ground all lanes of
the Dan Ryan into rubble and rebuilt the roadway from the ground up.
The new pavement is designed to last for 30 years and consists of a
24-inch recycled gravel sub-base, a 6-inch asphalt base and 14
inches of continuous steel reinforced concrete. The rebuilt
expressway will serve more than 300,000 vehicles a day between
Roosevelt Road, just south of downtown Chicago, through the Bishop
Ford and Interstate 57 interchange at 95th Street on the city's
South Side. The cost of the project for construction and engineering
is $975 million.
IDOT said that there will be additional landscaping work and
construction of knee-high concrete walls and fencing along the Dan
Ryan frontage roads that will continue into 2008.
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Among the benefits provided under the new Dan Ryan are the
following:
-
One additional lane
in each direction, adding significant capacity to the expressway
and reducing traffic congestion.
-
Longer exit and
entrance ramps to allow for safer merges into and out of
traffic.
-
Improved drainage
to reduce pavement flooding and traffic tie-ups during heavy
rains.
-
High-mast,
high-power lighting fixtures to provide better illumination of
traffic lanes and adjacent areas.
-
Aesthetic
improvements, such as installation of graphic medallions
designed by professional artists and Chicago Public Schools
students.
-
Redesigned and
rebuilt interchange with the Chicago Skyway (I-90).
-
Complete rebuilding
of 28 east-west bridges over the expressway.
The largest expressway reconstruction in Illinois history, the
Dan Ryan project is one of a series of massive efforts to rebuild
heavily used arteries that have far outlived their original
projected life span. Earlier this year, IDOT completed a similar
reconstruction project on the Kingery Expressway -- interstates 80
and 94 heading into Indiana.
IDOT officials said traffic has been flowing freely on the Dan
Ryan now that all lanes, ramps and bridges have been opening. IDOT
reminds all motorists to observe posted speed limits, which are 45
mph in the local lanes from 31st Street to the Chicago Skyway and on
the elevated bridge from Roosevelt Road, and 55 mph in the express
lanes and on the southern end from 67th Street to 95th Street.
The original Dan Ryan Expressway was opened Dec. 15, 1962, along
with the Calumet Expressway, now known as the Bishop Ford Freeway
(I-94), providing nonstop travel from the Congress Expressway, now
known as the Eisenhower Expressway (I-290), to 130th Street, at a
cost of $209 million. At the time, the Ryan was the widest expanse
of concrete any Chicagoan had ever seen. The highway was named after
Dan Ryan, a former Cook County Board president. Ryan's role in
planning the huge highway construction effort in the 1950s and 1960s
began with his 1939 proposal to build a superhighway that eventually
became the Kennedy Expressway (I-90/94).
(Project
photos)
[Text from file received from
the
Illinois Office of
Communication and Information] |
