Illinois DOT is looking at various alternatives for reconstruction of the Chicago Circle Interchange. Of course, it isn't funded yet, so no one can predict when this might happen. There have been a couple of meetings to talk with stakeholders about various considerations, and the preliminary alternatives were released yesterday.
PDF here. IDOT is mainly concerned about improving the throughput/reducing the backups on north-to-west and east-to-north movements, so at a minimum the alternatives give two lanes for both those ramps. Most of the alternatives also make the Dan Ryan four lanes all the way through (rather than the current three) and some push five through.
One funny thing is that they haven't yet sketched out the vertical dimensions, and some of the alternatives create nearly complete Texas-style stack interchanges that would rise 50 feet or more above the surrounding streets. I'm not crazy about that, and I think the speed gained by smoothing out the curves will be largely defeated (especially for trucks) by the elevation change required.
As a freeway historian, I'm reluctant to see the Circle's historic, almost-unique design completely blown away, but I think that will be a hard argument to make to the folks in charge of this.
We have a discussion of this going in the
Chicago transportation thread.