there are currently plans to add a lane in each direction to chicago's eisenhower expressway (I-290)where it chokes down from the 4 lanes to 3 lanes in each direction just as it leaves the city going west at roughly austin blvd. that 3 lane section runs for ~5 miles where it then opens back up into 4 lanes in each direction. the current plan is for the new lane to be a HOT lane, while also converting one of the general use lanes on the 4 lane sections to the same HOT lane as well. there is no eminent domain planned as far as i am aware for the expansion. the current ROW apparently has room to accommodate the newly configured lanes, along with the CTA blue line L tracks.
as the main expressway link between the city and its VAST expanse of western suburbia, those 4-lane to 3-lane choke points have been MASSIVE traffic-jam-inducing headaches in chicagoland for several generations now.
as an urbanist, i'm generally not in favor of new expressway construction/expansion (duh), but this particular project seems like a reasonable compromise to eliminate some MAJOR chokepoints on a very poorly designed old-school urban expressway from the '50s, while also converting one currently general use lane into a HOT lane all the way from downtown out to the tri-state tollway (I-294). when it's all said and done, it'll be 4 lanes in each direction (one of them HOT) with the blue line L running down the median. IMO, that's not an egregious amount of road for one of the most important transportation corridors in the entire midwest. an expansion to one of these texas-sized 16+ lane urban expressways would be straight-up off the table these days.
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"Missing middle" housing can be a great middle ground for many middle class families.
Last edited by Steely Dan; Feb 28, 2022 at 9:03 PM.
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