The surgery on the Kennedy Expressway that clogged traffic Wednesday in what has been commonly called "the pasta bowl," reopened at 4:30 a.m. this morning, prior to the start of Thursday morning's rush hour.

The Illinois Department of Transportation immediately closed the northbound Kennedy feeder ramps from the eastbound Eisenhower and westbound Congress Parkway Wednesday after two lanes buckled on the northbound Kennedy at Adams Street following the mistake blamed on a contractor.

However, following a feverish night of work, a lack of rain Wednesday and loads of quick drying concrete, the lanes seem to have been repaired and the roadway was driveable as of 4:30 a.m., IDOT officials said.

Adams is only blocks north of the intersection of I-290 and I-90/94, where the Kennedy meets the Dan Ryan and leads to the Stevenson Expressway to the southwest. It's a tangle of ramps that for decades has been fondly referred to as "the pasta bowl" by many a Chicago-area family.

Because the Kennedy is a feeder to the Dan Ryan and the Eisenhower expressways, IDOT spokeswoman Marisa Kollias added, a serious traffic jam on it can act as a binder on the other highways. She called the buckled pavement a "blowup" and a major problem.

"It was absolutely terrible coming in," said Greg Ejma of Frankfort after taking the Ike downtown. "The ramp to the Kennedy was blocked, and the ramp going off Roosevelt took about two hours."

Repairs funneled the northbound Kennedy into a single lane.

Kollias initially warned commuters it could take days to fix the damage.

The problem occurred while the contractor, Lorig Construction, was filling an underground freight tunnel with concrete. Workers used too much pressure and that caused the road to buckle, Kollias said.