Work on Jane Byrne Interchange finishes late, overbudget

[December 16, 2022]  By Andrew Hensel | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Transportation joined local officials and community leaders to celebrate the completion of the Jane Byrne Interchange reconstruction. The project took eight years and cost nearly $800 million.

The Jane Byrne Expressway, named after the former Chicago mayor, connects the Kennedy, Dan Ryan, and Eisenhower expressways and opened officially on Thursday.

The project, which began in 2013, finished over budget, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The undertaking was initially slated to cost $535 million.

Designed to eliminate a bottleneck, the project also is meant to improve the safety, efficiency and mobility across multiple modes of transportation while better connecting people and jobs throughout the Chicago area, officials said.

Pritzker spoke about what the project entailed.
 

"This is amazing that today has come. It's been an awful long time in coming," Pritzker said Wednesday. "This took nearly 10 years, 35 contracts, and a combined state and federal investment of $800 million."

Pritzker also said this is another step in keeping Illinois as one of the major transportation hubs in America.

"Illinois is the transportation, distribution and logistics hub of the nation," Pritzker said. "Where there is a bottleneck, we have to fix it. So we got to work."

Pritzker was asked about the project that went several years and hundreds of millions of dollars more than initially thought. He deferred the question to Illinois Transportation Secretary Omer Osman.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker Wednesday in Chicago.
Courtesy of Facebook

Osman said the project was unlike anything else they've done.

"All that complex engineering and some would be unknown, unknown underground and full soil condition, we would design elements of this project on the go," Osman said.

Pritzker thanked the Illinois workers who spent time on this project.

"For almost a decade, Illinois' first-rate workforce worked day in and day out to entirely reconstruct this massive project. And in the last few years, IDOT accelerated and streamlined the construction process to get this done, and the great men and women of Illinois' construction industry persevered," Pritzker said. "They are the ones who made this happen."

The project also included a total of 19 bridges and 21 ramps that have been reconstructed or rehabilitated, new LED lighting and improved signage for navigation purposes, along with reconstructed or rehabilitated retaining and noise walls throughout the project area.

The project also made a $10 million investment in the expansion of green spaces, including retaining wall vines, aesthetic upgrades, landscaping, and tree plantings.

Andrew Hensel has years of experience as a reporter and pre-game host for the Joliet Slammers, and as a producer for the Windy City Bulls. A graduate of Iowa Wesleyan University and Illinois Media School, Andrew lives in the south suburbs of Chicago.