The Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway, formerly called Congress Parkway, is the main Interstate highway west from the Chicago Loop. The highway connects Interstate 355 (North-South Tollway) in Addison with Interstate 90 and Interstate 94 near the loop. Built as one of the first superhighways in the city in the 1950's, the expressway originally extended to the area around Interstate 294 (Tri-State Tollway). East of Austin Avenue, the Eisenhower is 8 lanes wide (4 each westbound and eastbound) -- west of that point, the highway is generally 6 lanes wide. The Eisenhower is named after Dwight D. Eisenhower, principal architect of the Interstate Highway System.
History
During the 1960's and 1970's, the Eisenhower was extended to U.S. Highway 20 (Lake Street) and Illinois State Route 64 (North Avenue). It was then further extended to present-day Interstate 355, at the time simply a spur from the highway and named Illinois State Route 53. Until 1978, the Eisenhower Expressway was Interstate 90. After the Northwest Tollway was completed, Interstate 90 was routed north along the Kennedy Expressway and onto the tollway. Old Interstate 90 then was named Interstate 290, and that numbering continues to this day.
Because the segment from Interstate 294 to Interstate 355/Illinois 53 was built last, that portion of the highway is referred to as the Eisenhower Extension. The Eisenhower Expressway, extension included, is 23 miles long (37 km). If the Illinois 53 portion of Interstate 290 is added to that, it is actually 30 miles long (49 km).
Features
The Chicago Transit Authority maintains a rail line from the loop west to Park Forest in the median of the Eisenhower, and then closely paralleling the Eisenhower for about 10 miles (16 km). While convenient for mass transit, it has also severely limited any possibility of lane additions to the Eisenhower where the train line is. Preliminary studies on such an effort are already starting, however.
External Resources
Expressway Reconstruction Site (http://www.eisenhowerexpressway.com/|Eisenhower)
In the Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan areas they are commonplace, and they are found in more than two dozen smaller metropolitan areas.
Ramp metering was first implemented in 1963 on the EisenhowerExpressway (Interstate 290) in Chicago, Illinois.
This first application involved a police officer who would stop traffic on an entrance ramp and release vehicles one at a time at a predetermined rate, so that the objectives of safer and smoother merging onto the freeway traffic was easier without disrupting the mainline flows.
Feeds |
Contact