Interstate 290 (Illinois) - History

History

An expressway along the alignment of the Eisenhower Expressway was foreshadowed by Daniel Burnham's plan of 1909, which described a west side boulevard. The passageway under the old Post Office was designed to preserve the right of way for the future road.

The Expressway is named for the former President Dwight D. Eisenhower; it originally was called the Congress Expressway because It begins on Congress Parkway in Chicago. The political columnist Mike Royko joked that it is Chicago's only Republican expressway, since the others all named after Democrats (though since that observation Bishop Louis Henry Ford, a non-political figure, had an expressway named in his honor). The first segment, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) in length opened from Mannheim Road to 1st Avenue in December 1955. On December 15, 4 additional miles (6 km) opened, from Ashland Avenue (1600 West) to Laramie Avenue (5200 West).

During the 1960s and 1970s, the Eisenhower Expressway was extended to Lake Street and North Avenue. In 1963, the first working example of ramp metering took place on the Eisenhower Expressway, based on successful metering through New York City tunnels and data from ramp closures in Detroit, Michigan. The first implementation utilized a police officer at the top of an entrance ramp, stopping and releasing vehicles onto the highway at a predetermined rate. Another section opened in 1972, to a north–south expressway in Addison, Illinois. At the time, this expressway was a short spur from the Eisenhower Expressway, and it was referred to as Illinois Route 53, which continued north to Schaumburg. Construction on Illinois 53 had finished in 1970.

Until 1978, the Eisenhower Expressway was marked as a part of Interstate 90. In 1978, the Interstate 90 designation was moved onto the John F. Kennedy Expressway and the Northwest Tollway, replacing Illinois Route 194. The Eisenhower Expressway was then renumbered as Interstate 290.

Because the segment from Interstate 294 to Illinois 53 was built last, that portion of the highway is referred to as the Eisenhower Extension. The Eisenhower Expressway, extension included, is 23 miles (37 km) long. If the Illinois 53 portion of Interstate 290 is added to that, the highway is actually 30 miles (48 km) long.

In 2003-2004, the first five miles (8 km) of Interstate 290 out of Schaumburg were rebuilt, replacing pavement that had well-exceeded its estimated 20 year lifetime. (The original pavement was built in stages from 1963 through 1970 as part of Illinois 53.) A fifth auxiliary lane was added between the entrance and exit ramps of exits 1, 4 and 5. The most important safety upgrade was the demolition of the raised grassy median between the westbound and eastbound lanes, and its replacement with a permanent concrete median and wide shoulders.

• Hillside Strangler — Named after the Chicago suburb of Hillside, it refers to a major merge with Interstate 88, and almost always is used when referring to inbound (eastbound) traffic. It is at this point that Interstate 88 terminates eastbound. It was called the Strangler because before its reconstruction in the early 2000s, seven through lanes were forced to merge to three, creating large backups. Urban legend suggests that the former Columbia College student Robert Spryszak was the first known to use the expression relating to the traffic pattern in the late 1970s during the "Hillside Strangler" murders media craze. Reconstruction widened part of this area to nine lanes (five inbound; three through; two local; and four through lanes outbound). This allowed direct exits to Mannheim Road (U.S. Routes 12/20/45) from Interstate 88, the ramp also serving for an Interstate 88 truck access to eastbound Interstate 290; created an inbound collector-distributor ramp for Mannheim Road; and added a timed gate that closed a ramp from Roosevelt Road (Illinois Route 38) to inbound Interstate 290 during the afternoon rush hours. These improvements helped congestion at the site, but they also pushed pre-existing congestion further east to the six-lane portion of the highway. The Hillside Strangler is located at about mile marker 18.

• The Avenues — The portion of the highway between Mannheim Road at mile marker 17 and First Avenue in Maywood, a stretch of 3 miles (5 km). Named because all of the crossroads between these two exits are named numerically, in ascending order traveling outbound (westbound). 1st Avenue (Illinois Route 171) is exit 20. There are exits to 9th Avenue, 17th Avenue, and 25th Avenue to the west. These exits are spaced about 3/4ths of a mile (1200 m) apart. This stretch is notorious for being very congested.

• The Eisenhower Extension or 290 Extension — The eight miles (12 km) of road between current-day mile marker seven (Interstate 355 south to US 20/Lake Street) and North Avenue (Illinois Route 64), mile marker 15. This section was built in the late 1970s.

• The Circle Interchange — The eastern terminus of Interstate 290 where it meets Interstates 90 and 94, which overlap through Chicago. North of this interchange Interstates 90 and 94 are called the Kennedy Expressway, while south of it Interstates 90 and 94 are called the Dan Ryan Expressway. The interchange itself consists of eight heavily used, very tight ramps that wind around each other, giving the interchange a distinct circle shape when looked at from above. This design, adequate when first built in the 1950s, forces drivers to slow down to speeds of about 20 mph (32 km/h) due to its tightly wound curves. This currently causes the worst congestion in the Chicago area. However, the redesign of the interchange has been determined to be prohibitively expensive because of the relatively small, four city-block area that the interchange is built upon.