IDOT: 'Avoid the Dan Ryan' during two-year rehab

Illinois Department of Transportation officials have a word of advice for drivers who want to use the Dan Ryan after March 31: Don't.

IDOT officials are urging drivers to take alternate routes when a two-year, $600 million renovation of the Dan Ryan Expy. begins at midnight March 31. Crews will rebuild the 43-year-old road from the sub-base to the lighting overhead. The result, officials say, will be a safer, less-congested expressway. But in the short-term, the project will clog the Ryan and expressways feeding into it, officials said.

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Many of those Chicagoans, especially the north siders, can probably get around the mess by taking the tollway. One of the great things about the Chicago toll roads when I was there was that the tolls kept a lot of drivers from using them, meaning that those of us who were willing to pay the tolls got faster, safer rides than the people using the freeways.

No consolation to those making a daily commute within the confines of Chicago, but there's a nifty shortcut between Wisconsin and Michigan via high-speed catamaran auto ferry. American built Jones Act ship that's the first of its kind running between US ports.

Runs between late April and the end of October and takes only 2-1/2 hours. Given traffic predictions for the coming months/years, I'd ponder to guess that it'd save at least half the time vs. negotiating the Dan Ryan.

Lake Express High Speed Ferry

That's really cool. While I was living in Milwaukee I became an ardent sailor and single handed my sloop around the upper two thirds of Lake Michigan five different times. In addition, I make a number of lake crossings from Milwaukee to Muskegon, especially for "Solo '81," a single handed sailing race from Muskegon to Wind Point North Shoal buoy just outside of Racine, around the buoy, and back to Muskegon. I sailed my boat across the lake the Saturday before the race, had wonderful wind all the way and made a steady 5 or 6 knots. The trip took about twelve hours and I was completely out of sight of of land for about six of those. Because no ferry service was running at the time, I got a friend who needed flying hours to pick me up in Muskegon after I'd spotted my boat there and fly me back for the race. The ferry would have been a really neat alternative. Lake Michigan is a vest pocket ocean and a genuine wilderness once you get only five or ten miles off shore. This ferry gives everybody in Wisconsin and Michigan a real opportunity for an ocean passage entirely out of sight of land, a truly wonderful experience.

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