About Chicagoland: Expressways: Eisenhower Expressway

Highway number: Interstate 290

Direction: West from downtown Chicago to western suburbs, and northwest to Schaumburg

Length: 32 miles

Opened: 1954

Original name: Congress Street expressway

Renamed: 1964 to honor President and WWI veteran Eisenhower

Driving time, offpeak: 35 minutes inbound and outbound, 15-18 mins outbound to Mannheim

Driving time, peak: 50-60 minutes outbound, 60-70 minutes inbound. 35 mins outbound to Mannheim

Best Alternates: 22nd Street (Cermak), Roosevelt Road, Harrison from Austin to Harlem

Other Alternates: Madison, Ogden (too slow), Stevenson Expressway (I-55, currently under construction). For travels on the Ike Extension, Rt. 83 (Kingery Highway, evolved from the 80/94 version of Kingery) is a good option. Rt. 83 is a highway with limited traffic signals.

My alternates are based on exiting the Ike at Laramie (5200W) or Austin (6000W) on an outbound trip, or entering the Ike at Harlem (7200W) or Austin on an inbound trip

The Ike is a very congested route. Depending on your direction inbound/outbound, you may spend most of the trip driving less than 20 mph.

This is the road for those who live in the western burbs (Oak Park, Oak Brook, Naperville, Aurora) and work downtown, or vice versa. The Ike feeds into 1-88 (East-West Tollway).

The infamous "Hillside Strangler"

The point at which I-290, I-88, I-294, and an entrance ramp from Roosevelt merge is commonly known as the "Ike bottleneck" or the "Hillside Strangler". The latter name is because the section of road is located in the suburb Hillside. It is the 13th worst bottleneck in the U.S.

Relief is on the way, somewhat. The Ike construction plan, a beneficiary of Governor George Ryan's "Illinois FIRST" initiative, calls for access lanes along Mannheim Road and Roosevelt Road, which will make exiting at Mannheim easier for eastbound traffic. Access roads will also be added between Mannheim and 25th Avenue. Construction on the Ike is due to be completed by December 4, 2000. All construction - including widening of other streets and bridge reconstruction - should be finished by late May 2001.

Updates are posted at the Department of Transportation's construction report page.

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