The Dan Ryan, the Kennedy . . . expressway construction projects that seemed a fiendish plot to play havoc with the lives of motorists for torturous months. When the reconstruction of the Stevenson Expressway begins, however, motorists actually should be thankful it has held off this long.
When the Stevenson-the stretch of Interstate Highway 55 that goes from Lake Shore Drive in Chicago to the County Line Road exit near Hinsdale-was constructed in the early 1960s, representatives from the Illinois Department of Transportation felt that they would be lucky if the road lasted 20 years without major reconstruction.
As it turns out, the road has surpassed those expectations. Thirty years later, the Stevenson has avoided the road work that made the Kennedy Expressway such a nightmare for motorists over the past two years.
But the Stevenson won’t be able to avoid major reconstruction for much longer. Despite a recent major, eight-month-long resurfacing and reconstruction job, the expressway will have to undergo an extensive $400 million reconstruction in the next three years, IDOT officials believe.
By doing this, IDOT officials hope to make the Stevenson a serviceable road for Chicago and its Will and southern DuPage County suburbs well into the 21st Century.
“These roads have a 20-year life span, and after that, we try to extend that pavement’s life through resurfacing until we reach a point where it doesn’t become economical,” said Jim Klafeta, the engineer of operations for IDOT in the six-county metropolitan Chicago-area. “Resurfacing is not becoming economical for us. That’s one of the reasons why the Stevenson will become the next expressway to be reconstructed.”
IDOT’s plans for the Stevenson keep alive an almost 70-year tradition of traveling through the southwest suburbs. That’s because the Stevenson and Interstate 55 were preceded by a more famous highway-Route 66, the famous thoroughfare that started in Chicago and ended in Los Angeles.
That’s right, the same celebrated highway immortalized in a famous song and a late ’50s television series served much the same purpose that the Stevenson and I-55 serve today.
True, the old Route 66 turned west through St. Louis after winding southwest from Chicago through Illinois, while I-55 meanders south after going through the Gateway City.
But Route 66-which came into existence in 1926 and was officially decertified in 1985-covered some of the same ground that the current Interstate 55 now does. Some roads adjacent to the Stevenson and I-55-most notably Joliet Road-in fact originally were sections of Route 66.
“Some of the Stevenson followed the old Route 66, while some followed a new alignment,” Klafeta said. “But as you go farther south towards Will County, you can see parts of old Route 66 adjacent to the expressway. It’s interesting to compare the old with the new.”
The new-or at least the relatively new-Stevenson and Interstate 55 came into existence between the years 1962 and 1966, with the first section, from the Dan Ryan to California, opening in August of 1964. The section from California to County Line Road made its debut in December 1965, and the extension from Lake Shore drive completed the work in November 1966.
The road was originally dubbed the Southwest Expressway but was renamed to honor former Gov. Adlai Stevenson after his death. The construction was another example of the federal government’s commitment to an interstate expressway system. But while the Stevenson and I-55 heralded a newer, bigger, more sophisticated highway, it meant the beginning of the end for the more colorful Route 66-which was graced with flamboyant motels, picturesque restaurants and service stations and idiosyncratic knick-knack shops.
“Although it was a wonderful highway, there was no need for Route 66 when the interstate system came along,” said Marshall Solaway, the former district engineer for IDOT who headed the construction for the Stevenson.
“With the interstate system, Route 66 became obsolete,” said Solaway, now with the engineering firm of Consoer-Townsend Envirodyne Corp. in Chicago.
The most difficult part of the construction of the Stevenson was acquiring the land to build the expressway, according to Solaway. But after those land acquisitions were made, there were no problems in the expressway’s actual construction.
“It was done in a hurry-30 months is no time for the construction of a highway,” Solaway said.
Now, 30 years later, Solaway sees the need for major reconstruction of the Stevenson. “Drive underneath it at Archer Avenue and just look at the deteriorating columns,” said Solaway. “It’s easy to tell that this is an expressway badly in need of reconstruction.”
If IDOT is able the get the proper state and federal funding, reconstruction for the Stevenson from the Dan Ryan Expressway to the Int. Hwy. 294/Tri-State Tollway exit near County Line Road may begin as soon as 1996.
“We’d like to see reconstruction begin somewhere between fiscal year 1995 and 1999,” said Ken Macander, the engineer of program development for IDOT. “If things go the way we would like them to go, construction would begin in 1996.” The total project would stretch over portions of three years.
Motorists, of course, already know this. Before the recent patchwork, they had to endure teeth-rattling rides caused by a choppy, pothole-riddled expressway.
The resurfacing and minor reconstruction job, which started in April and came to an end on Oct. 15, 1994, came about due to the potholes, which were produced by a harsh winter. Heavy truck traffic also played a role in creating what AAA Chicago Motor Club spokesman Louis Pukelis described as a “crater-filled” surface.
Before the resurfacing, the worst section of the expressway probably was the elevated portion of the Stevenson, between the junction for the Dan Ryan Expressway on the north and the Western Avenue exit to the south. But the entire expressway had pothole problems, which were exacerbated after the cold weather set in last winter.
These problems apparently took IDOT officials by surprise.
“We didn’t originally plan to do the resurfacing, but we had to do it,” Klafeta said. “The Stevenson was resurfaced prior to this (in 1984, 1987 and 1989), but the winter damage forced us to get back out there this summer.”
The potholes made the Stevenson and the stretch of I-55 to Will County one of the more notoriously hazardous roads in the area. Radio personalities such as WMVP-AM host Steve Dahl routinely complained about the quality of the Stevenson on his morning show, while Chicago Mayor Richard Daley called the expressway “dangerous” after driving on it.
IDOT spokesman Ed Nash downplayed negative comments about the quality of the expessway as “oratory.” But comments from Daley and others may have forced the agency to take action to improve the quality of the expressway. In February 1994, two to three pothole crews began working around the clock on the expressway. The resurfacing project soon followed.
Fickle commuters who were complaining about the potholes weren’t any more pleased about the massive gridlock caused by the construction crews on the Stevenson and I-55 during the spring and summer. But IDOT officials knew that the traffic jams caused by the resurfacing and minor reconstruction projects were preferable to the potholes.
So far, motorists-like those who were filling up their gas tanks at a Shell station just off I-55 near Kingery Road-have mixed opinions about the work done on the expressway.
“They did a good job, but that doesn’t mean that this work will hold up,” said Anthony Kampwirth, a resident of unincorporated Hinsdale who was at the Shell station. “Those road crews have a tendency to patch things up with peanut butter or something like that.”
“Anything would have been an improvement over what it used to be,” countered Joan Carey, a Lemont resident who was also at the gas station. “I just hope they keep it like this and don’t have to tear it up again.”
Experts, however, feel that the resurfacing is only a patch job.
“I think that the Stevenson is much improved over its condition in the winter, but we’re in favor of a more permanent solution,” Pukelis said. “The road needs a total reconstruction, sooner rather than later.”
Whatever your opinion about the current condition of the Stevenson, there is no equivocation about the significance of the expressway to the commuters who come into Chicago from the south and west suburbs.
Last year, the Stevenson carried an average of 175,000 cars per day, which was good enough for fourth place among the seven major expressways in the Chicago area. (The Dan Ryan was first with an average of 300,000 vehicles per day, while the Kennedy-with 270,000 cars per day-and the Eisenhower-with 226,000 per day-were second and third, respectively.)
One of the Stevenson’s major functions is to serve as the primary expressway for motorists driving to Midway Airport, which is a few blocks from the Cicero Avenue exit on the roadway.
“It’s a great alternative for people who would prefer not using the Kennedy to drive into O’Hare,” Pukelis said. “You have business people and vacationers from all over the area using the Stevenson to drive into Midway.”
The drive on the Stevenson and I-55 is admittedly not the most scenic in the area. Industrial vistas predominate from the Dan Ryan junction on the north to the Harlem Avenue exit on the south. The Commonwealth Edison plant at 35th Street and Pulaski Road in Chicago and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District plant near Stickney are just two of the many rather unsightly structures located near the expressway.
Some of these plants, such as the MWRD facility, also contribute to the pungent aroma that every Stevenson motorist experiences on the Chicago section of the expressway. This smell is best described as an amalgamation of aromas from a sewer and a steel mill.
The scene, however, becomes less industrial after one drives past south suburban Hodgkins. Trees and man-made valleys line the roadway near Darien. And the occasional animal-sometimes a rabbit, less often a deer-will make an appearance near the roadway.
But while the factories disappear after one crosses the Des Plaines River, motorists are then gradually assaulted by more and more billboards. The signs, which rise ominously on either side of the road, advertise ventures as dissimilar as the Empress River Casino in Joliet and Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket in Willowbrook.
Going hand in hand with the billboards are the numerous service stations and restaurants, mostly well-known franchises: Shell, Standard, Mobil, McDonald’s, Bob Evans, Burger King. Quick-eyed drivers can spot the occasional exception, Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket again being the most notable.
These unique establishments evoke images of historic Route 66.,
If IDOT officials have their way, motorists will be able to compare the old Stevenson with the new Stevenson by 1999. That’s when the reconstruction project would be completed. The reconstruction project could include the creation of new columns to hold up the elevated section of the Stevenson; a new fourth lane; and longer and wider ramps from the Dan Ryan to the Stevenson.
The project has already been identified for funding in the state and federal $5 billion Proposed Highway Improvement plan. However, funding for expressway projects is identified on a year-by-year need basis. There’s no official word yet that reconstruction will begin as planned in 1996.
“We are proceeding with the development of (the study phase) of the reconstruction,” Macander said. “That way, if dollars do become available, we can use the money as quickly as possible. But if we don’t get federal funding, then we’ll have to go back out there and do substantial patching work.”