Interstate 55 Construction in 2002 (Chicago, Plainfield, Dwight: contractor, closing, moving)

[JonasNewsch]

In the summer of 2002, me and my family were driving to Chicago from St. Louis, and we got caught in that construction mess on I-55. Unfortunately, that particular night, northbound I-55 had only one lane open and it therefore delayed us bigtime. Southbound I-55 was moving quite fine that night on the other hand, so I'm assuming they alternated between closing northbound and southbound lanes. Does anyone remember that major construction project on Interstate 55 near Plainfield in 2002 and how it would cause severe backups?

[chet everett]

I suspect that may have been when the bridge(s) were replaced. The lanes were switched, but not nightly or even weekly. More like after a few months of progress on one side.

Typically the decisions about which side to close are based on the contractor's schedule and little else...

[JonasNewsch]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I suspect that may have been when the bridge(s) were replaced. The lanes were switched, but not nightly or even weekly. More like after a few months of progress on one side.

Typically the decisions about which side to close are based on the contractor's schedule and little else...

Yes, what I meant was that they were working on the northbound side when I was caught in it, and they either worked on the southbound side either before starting the northbound side or after finishing the northbound side. And, I don't think that was when they were replacing the bridges, I believe that was when they resurfaced the highway from like Plainfield to 294. Do you remember that it caused really long delays?

[whakru]

Not sure how many people are going to remember that specific time 13 years ago, especially considering the amount of highway construction that goes on around here. But, I would guess that it caused really long delays because most all highway construction that shuts down a lane or two is going to cause really long delays.

Is there a reason that you are inquiring about this now?

[JonasNewsch]

Originally Posted by whakru

Not sure how many people are going to remember that specific time 13 years ago, especially considering the amount of highway construction that goes on around here. But, I would guess that it caused really long delays because most all highway construction that shuts down a lane or two is going to cause really long delays.

Is there a reason that you are inquiring about this now?

I wasn't asking about the specific day, I was asking about that construction project which caused the traffic jam I was caught in. I'm sure that construction project lasted several months. I bring this up because this was one of the worst traffic jams that I was ever in and I want to see if any locals remember very well how I-55 was severely jammed in the summer of 2002.

[Ophidian14]

Yes, I remember quite vividly. I would get off northbound I-55 at IL-47 at Dwight, and take it all the way to I-80 to avoid the traffic. It was terrible.

[Ophidian14]

I'll also add that in those days, I-55 went down to four lanes before Weber Rd. It's six lanes now all the way to I-80, but it used to be pretty much guaranteed traffic jam at that point.

[JonasNewsch]

Originally Posted by Ophidian14

Yes, I remember quite vividly. I would get off northbound I-55 at IL-47 at Dwight, and take it all the way to I-80 to avoid the traffic. It was terrible.

Wow, this makes me wonder if there were times during that summer where the traffic jam on northbound I-55 started before I-80 even. We certainly were lucky that the traffic started after I-80 that particular time or else we could of been delayed like 5 hours.

[myrc60]

Originally Posted by JonasNewsch

Wow, this makes me wonder if there were times during that summer where the traffic jam on northbound I-55 started before I-80 even. We certainly were lucky that the traffic started after I-80 that particular time or else we could of been delayed like 5 hours.

I think you can count on it! It only takes one accident!