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Interchange Index

Overhead Picture from terraserver-usa.com

Overview: I-90/I-94, the main highway through Chicago, runs north-south through this interchange; it is the Dan Ryan Expressway to the south, and the Kennedy Expressway to the north. The highway which leaves to the west is I-290, the Eisenhower Expressway, which is a bypass around part of Chicago and a main route from Chicago to the western suburbs. To the east is a connector to Congress Parkway, which continues as a surface street through downtown Chicago.
This interchange isn't numbered from I-290, as it is its eastern terminus. From I-90 and I-94 eastbound (southbound), it's Exit 51H; from the westbound (northbound) side, it's Exit 51H for I-290 and 51I for Congress Parkway. The 'high' letters are, to my knowledge, the highest outside of the Kansas City Inner Loop highway, which goes from 2A to 2Y. These are a result of seven other exits in the previous mile; see below for a little more on these.

Interchange Description: This interchange is actually not too complex, although it is a very major link in the Chicago transportation system. It has the basic layout of a circular stack; the left-turn ramps, instead of all meeting at a central point along with the two through highways, all wind around the interchange in a counter-clockwise direction until reaching the correct roadway. As an extra perk, all of the offramps are semi-directional; they each split from the main highway first, and then split again into two parts.
For completeness's sake: Of the four ramps in the circular interchange, the innermost is the ramp from I-90/I-94 eastbound (southbound) to Congress Parkway eastbound. The next one out is Congress Parkway westbound to I-90/I-94 eastbound (southbound), followed by I-90/I-94 westbound (northbound) to I-290 westbound. Lastly, the outermost ramp (in the southwestern quadrant) even goes outside of one of the right-turn ramps; this is the ramp from I-290 eastbound to I-90/I-94 westbound (northbound).

North of this interchange: To the right is an aerial photo of the stretch of I-90/I-94 north of the circular stack at I-290. This stretch of highway has a very ...interesting... and unique design, one which (in my opinion, luckily) hasn't been duplicated anywhere else in the country to quite this extent. The problem: planners at the time clearly thought that it was necessary to put in an exit at every block for about a mile, to give good access to downtown Chicago. To their credit, this probably was effective. However, the problem inherent in this is that one city block doesn't have enough room to put in a single offramp or onramp, much less an onramp and an offramp with enough room between them to avoid problems with weaving in very short distances. The result: the design you see to your right. All exits are on the right side. However, to avoid interfering with the exits on the right, all of the freeway entrances are on the left side of the freeway, in the median between the two directions of travel. I've seen worse left entrance ramps - at least these are straight and have virtually no turn necessary to join the freeway. One other plus is that the ramps slope downward, so it's easier to pick up speed while merging and it's marginally easier to see the traffic over one's right shoulder. However, they're still much less than ideal; traffic has to merge into the fastest lane of travel (which, in Chicago, is anywhere from 20 to from almost a dead stop on the local street above. This is the only place I've seen this in the US, and I think it's not necessarily the best idea. This probably was only done because it was built before such things were seen as hazardous; had this been rebuilt today, there would most likely be exits for only two or three of these local streets, with all right exits and entrances. And for the record: the list of these exits. Exit 51A: West Lake Street (NB off, SB on only) Exit 51B: West Randolph Street Exit 51C: West Washington Boulevard Exit 51D: West Madison Street Exit 51E: West Monroe Street Exit 51F: West Adams Street Exit 51G: West Jackson Boulevard (SB off, NB on only)

Comments: Quite frankly, this interchange is from a different era. This was one of the first major interchanges built in the Chicago metro area, as I-290 (then I-90) and the Dan Ryan/Kennedy Expressways were among the first to be built in the city. The most blatantly outdated feature is the mile-long stretch of continuous right exits and left entrances north of here; this sort of thing would never be accepted with today's design standards. The ramps connecting all of the highways are not quite as gently curved as a new interchange might be; in this case, high-speed traffic flow was sacrificed for the sake of taking less space and building a cheaper interchange. This probably will never be changed now, especially with the amount of development in the SE and NE quadrants and the proximity of local streets to the highways. All told, though - I think it's a pretty decent interchange for its age and the tight location. Many worse things could have been done; at least, with this design, there are no loop ramps, no weaving, and direct movements to and from all of the highways in all directions.

Corrections? Suggestions? More information is always welcome.
Suggestions for more interchanges to cover on this site are great too.
Contact the author, Dan (known as DanTheMan on misc.transport.road):
twowheel@email.com