The Illinois Tollway maintains and operates 294 miles of interstate tollways in 12 counties in northern Illinois, including a key segment of the Central Tri-State Tollway (I-294) that is currently being reconstructed and widened. The 22-mile corridor serves more than 300,000 vehicles daily.
To complete this massive task, the Illinois Tollway broke the project into several contracts. The projects began in 2018 and are scheduled to conclude in 2027 with a price tag of $4 billion. One of the seven projects is the I-290/I-88 Interchange Project at I-294.
The I-294 corridor was constructed in the late 1950s. While work has occurred over the years, the current projects are part of the first major reconstruction of the roadway. Before the reconstruction, the roadway included four lanes. Upon completion, the roadway will have five to six lanes.
The interchange is in the middle of the corridor, making it crucial to the tollway system.
"It's one of the biggest and most congested interchanges in our system," said Jeff Allen, Chief of Program Implementation for the Tollway Engineering Department. "It involves major arteries and links Chicago to western and northeastern suburbs."
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The interchange experiences backups extending up to 2.5 miles. Much of it is due to truck traffic, which accounts for 18 percent of traffic on the corridor.
There are two significant issues with ramp movements, according to Allen. There is heavy congestion on the ramp from I-294 to I-290. The traffic backs up as trucks slow to an average of 15 mph as they come out of the curve and face a steep hill.
On the southbound ramp from I-294 to I-88, incoming traffic must weave to make it onto the route. The weaving leads to backups.
While changes to the roadway are needed, performing the work without worsening the traffic is a must.
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"We broke the project up into five packages to minimize impacts to traffic," said Laura Thompson, an Executive Project Manager for the Illinois Tollway. "We methodically arranged the work areas to be conscious about how we sequenced the project."
Three of the five packages were advanced contracts that allowed the Tollway to construct collector roads and ramps to maintain traffic flows, while the other two packages started rebuilding the mainline of I-294.
The team maintains four lanes on the mainline but does have temporary lane closures during off-peak hours. Traffic is periodically detoured to I-290 during overnights to allow for the demolition of bridges and other work that is more safely performed without traffic around.
The project, led by general contractor Walsh Construction Company II, LLC, involves reconfiguring and reconstructing the I-290/I-88 interchange.
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The construction will impact 28 bridges, of which seven are new construction, 16 are reconstruction, and five are rehabilitations. It will also affect 19 ramps, including a new fly-under ramp. The ramp replaces the loop that connected northbound I-294 and westbound I-290, which drastically slowed truck movements, causing delays and backups.
The team is also reconstructing and widening 2 miles of mainline on I-294 and rehabilitating 1.5 miles on I-290 to widen those roads to six lanes.
The team is building a new collector-distributor (CD) road on southbound I-294 at westbound I-88. Designers expect the new CD road to untangle the weave traffic encounters when traveling from the southbound ramp on I-294 to I-88. The project designers expect this to reduce backups and increase traffic flow.
Other work on the project includes:
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- Installation of noise walls
- Electrical and lighting improvements
- Drainage construction and improvements
- Installation of ITS devices and enhancements to previously installed equipment
- Rebuilding the roads with composite pavement design
- Owner: Illinois Tollway, Downers Grove, Illinois
- General Contractor: The Walsh Group, Chicago, Illinois
- Designer: Jacobs, Dallas, Texas; Stanley Consultants, Muscatine, Iowa
- Construction Manager: GFT Inc., New York, New York
- Other Contractors: Martinez Underground Inc., Wildwood, Illinois; Meade Inc., Willowbrook, Illinois; Omega III, Elgin, Illinois; AC Iron LLC, Lansing, Illinois; Roadsafe Traffic Systems Inc., Chicago, Illinois; Metromix Contractors, La Grange Highlands, Illinois
Performing construction work in a confined space is challenging and requires teams to plan more carefully. On this project, the location and activity in the area have had a significant impact.
In addition to an average daily traffic of more than 300,000, the area around the interchange serves as a residential area. There is also commerce in the area.
"We wanted to limit right of way acquisitions, which impacted the design of the interchange," Allen said. “In lieu of additional widening along mainline I-294 and existing ramps, designers reimagined the geometry of the interchange by lengthening ramps, making more directional connections, and eliminating conflict points, which resulted in a more streamlined configuration.”
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Another challenge was that the team had to relocate 35 high-voltage Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) towers, since they interfered with the widening. Because of the crowded area, determining where to place the towers was not straightforward.
"Everywhere you look in the project area, there are cranes moving," Thompson said. The powerlines have complicated the movement of the cranes and beams. "It's taken lots of coordination to get the beams in and out of the project area."
"This project has required lots of interagency coordination," Allen said. "We've worked with 15-plus agencies including IDOT [Illinois Department of Transportation], City of Elmhurst, Village of Berkely, and the Canadian National railroad, which has tracks within the project area."
Underlying soil conditions were a design constraint that had to be addressed during construction.
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"We used lightweight cellular fill in some areas to increase soil stability and so ground conditions were suitable for the construction improvements and the heavy traffic loading along the road," Thompson said.
The team also installed rigid inclusions to strengthen the soils to support loads. They needed to wait for the lightweight cellular fill to cure before proceeding with construction, which impacted sequencing and schedule.
The limited right of way acquisition also complicated the project. The project required working around and protecting significant IDOT and DuPage Water Commission infrastructure, including a 60-inch storm sewer installed earlier by IDOT. Work crews encountered buried concrete and other obstacles, including foundations of old houses removed decades ago.
The project has required the team to practice great coordination due to the significant number of bridges involved.
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"We had to do some resequencing when we discovered the subsurface differing site conditions," Thompson said. "Having the designer very involved has been beneficial, as they've quickly provided us answers as issues come up, which has helped us align the civil work."
The two primary project designers are Jacobs and Stanley Consultants.
The Chicago-based Walsh Group has been in business since 1898 and has extensive experience in the area.
"Walsh has been a staple on our corridor, and they're very familiar with the area," Allen said. “They've worked on some of the other contracts and have performed well."
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Allen specifically noted that the firm has developed several helpful value-engineering proposals. Thompson added that Walsh has helped the team overcome issues, including construction of key bridges and beam fabrication timelines.
During construction of the tri-level bridge on southbound I-294 over the I-88 roadway, the substructure of the prior 1950s bridge was determined to conflict with the proposed bridge improvements. The contractor and designer worked together on alternative substructure designs that would allow construction to proceed and reduce the impacts to the overall interchange construction.
Facing project delays due to the timing of beam fabrication needed for the tri-level bridge carrying northbound I-294 over I-88, Walsh helped devise a plan to accommodate the bridge being built in a single stage. That was done by resequencing the intended construction schedule. This avoided construction delays, and it will provide a higher quality structure, as it removes the construction joint in the bridge deck.
Currently, the team anticipates that the project will finish on budget. The construction budget was set at $700 million to $800 million. Neither the state nor the federal government is contributing to the project. The Illinois Tollway is providing 100 percent of the project's financing through toll collections.
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Work on the contract began in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. Since then, there have been dramatic impacts on material supply and costs. The team has overcome these challenges by having close coordination with the contractor and breaking the project into manageable contracts.
The project is expected to conclude in 2027 and is currently on schedule.
"The key to keeping the project on schedule was prioritizing the utilities," Thompson said. "We did this as a first step so we could advance construction and reduce the strain during later stages."
Other steps that have helped keep the project on schedule include the packaging. The Illinois Tollway was able to adjust the schedule as necessary. Mild (by Chicago standards) weather during the last couple of winters has also helped the team progress on the project.
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When the project is complete and the corridor is finished, drivers will experience increased reliability and reduced travel times. The modernized interchange will also be safer and provide a better driving experience for those in the region. Finally, the new noise walls will help mitigate sound in the area, and improved drainage will reduce flooding in the surrounding neighborhoods.
