‘In the rearview mirror’: Drivers can take back the Kennedy after three years of construction angst

The three-year slog for Kennedy Expressway drivers is over, Illinois Department of Transportation leaders announced Friday.

The rehab project initially was scheduled to wrap up around Thanksgiving, but good weather and IDOT crews doubling down helped end the pain early, IDOT Secretary Gia Biagi said.

Prior to construction, Biagi described potholes “that popped up at the worst times.”

“We had bridges that hadn’t been touched in decades. The express lanes had long exceeded their life span. That, at long last, is in the rearview mirror,” she said at a news conference in Chicago.

The 7.5-mile repair job between Ohio Street and the Edens Expressway included rehabbing 36 bridges and 24 exit and entrance ramps.

Gov. JB Pritzker noted, “275,000 vehicles pass through the Kennedy Expressway every single day. That is — hundreds of thousands of workers making their commute, parents taking their kids to school, delivery drivers moving freight. We have just made all of their lives and their drives faster, and easier and safer.

“At a time of historic division in our politics, there is one idea we can all rally around, and that is — traffic sucks.”

The original project cost was $150 million but rose to $169 million because of additional pavement patching and bridge work, engineers explained.

The redo kicked off in 2023, when IDOT upgraded the Kennedy’s inbound lanes.

But 2024 proved the most problematic as crews focused on replacing the reversible lane access control system (REVLAC). Installing cameras plus new software and electrical features proved so complicated, completion was delayed into January 2025.

This year, workers focused on the outbound lanes.

For Kennedy drivers, it’s been a grueling three years. Biagi, who was appointed in late 2024, addressed questions about the project timing.

“One of the things we did was look back at the last two phases, and say, ‘OK, can we run more shifts? Can we flood the construction zone? How can we do that in a safe way?’”

Since 2023 and 2025 construction years were relatively straightforward, without any reversible lane complications, engineers also analyzed that first year to figure out expediencies in the final segment.

“We are learning from the work we’ve done in the past, but then applying it here,” Biagi said.

The Kennedy Expressway opened in 1960.