Free Republic

CHICAGO — Sixteen miles of new "flex lanes" will allow PACE buses to breeze past traffic along I-90 going west from O'Hare Airport, suburban transportation officials announced this week. The lanes will carry six new bus lines all along the Jane Addams Tollway, half of them linking up with the Rosemont Blue Line station to give passengers direct access to the city. Ratcheting up bus service was the last piece of a $2.5 billion effort to widen the tollway between O'Hare and suburban Elgin, officials said. Construction wrapped up last December. The extra lane will stay clear most of the...

Jane Addams Tollway (I-90) drivers can expect those inscrutable black gantries towering over the roadway to get chatty this summer. The Illinois tollway has completed installation and testing of 29 digital message signs between Barrington Road and O'Hare International Airport. The displays will provide real-time traffic updates and safety advisories and direct drivers to shift lanes when crashes occur. The system will go live around the end of July or early August, Chief Engineer Paul Kovacs said at a Wednesday committee meeting. "All the construction is done and we've completed the testing so we know it's operational. Now we're training...

The Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA) has presented the Illinois Tollway with a Project of the Year Award for the $2.5 billion Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (Interstate 90) Rebuilding and Widening Project. The award was presented during the association’s 38th annual awards banquet in Chicago. This is the second HACIA Project of the Year Award the Tollway has received, the first being presented in 2015 for the initial phase of this same project. “This project demonstrates how the Illinois Tollway has helped contribute to the growth and development of Hispanic-owned firms in the Chicago area and across Northern Illinois,”...