The plan calls for adding new lanes from Cumberland to Harlem Avenue. The Illinois Department of Transportation held a public meeting on the plan Thursday.
As we drive today, it's moving, but so often the junction of 190 - out of O'Hare and the Jane Addams Expressway, is a chokefest. Frequent delays. In the two mile stretch btween Cumberland and Harlem, there's an accident on average every day and a half. Part of the bottleneck problem is due to thousands of inbound motorists who everyday cross many lanes of traffic to exit at Cumberland.
So the plan to build a flyover, and erect barriers both inbound and outbound to smooth traffic flow. IDOT also wants to add a fourth lane of traffic in each direction between Cumberland and Harlem - which it says it can do without taking anyone's property. The projection - delays and accidents drop.
Along that two-mile stretch, IDOT proposes noise barrier walls - not uncommon along expressways, but very uncommon within the city of Chicago. Residents along the Kennedy are being given the chance to vote on the idea. Bella Rudnick, who's lived alongside the Kennedy for the better part of three decades, says she's a no-vote.
