Dagnabbit.

Almost got my ass crushed by a pickup just now.

I was going down the westbound Willow onto I-94 ramp. It's a fairly small 270 degree turn... and it ends quickly due to the shortish bridge it came from. On top of that, just on the other side is a short and quick merge from the eastbound side of Willow Rd.

Now, I normally try to push 40 by the time the 270 ramp starts straightening out... but there was a police car, which made me instinctively brake a little... so instead of speeding up, I was slowing down.

Traffic was flowing quite fast. The speed limit is 55, but we all know they never go at speed limit. I would bet it was at least 65 (since the cops would actually allow it).

I manage to get to speed before crossing the bridge... only barely.

And coming down the other ramp... a large box truck and a smaller sedan behind it.

With traffic EVERYWHERE... I felt like I had no choice but to slow down... with a Dodge Ram pickup behind me.

I dropped to 40.

IDOT should redesign those on-ramps...

Lengthen the westside of the bridge by 6 to 12 feet (12 if you still want a shoulder).
Extend the northside ramp as a full on lane going under and past the bridge (longer merging lane).
Then, have the southside ramp merge with that lane and eventually, both merge (end) into the highway lanes.

This way, it should give people more room to merge into the main lanes... without having people in the main lanes having to slam their brakes when a car suddenly appears.

It's fairly simplistic on paper and I know it's not in reality... but I'm pretty certain in terms of road construction in general, it's one of the easier ones.

 

That is a bad ramp design. Imagine driving a tractor trailer on that ramp. There is a accident at least once a day on that ramp and turning lane. I am glad I do not use that ramp that much.

 

I don't know who gets by with submitting designs for some of these roads that get approved. There are sections where you can count on accidents especially when the roads are wet. Happens everytime yet they continue to build them the same. Glad you were not hit and that your angels were watching over you!

 

I think, the ramp design may have been fine, if I-94 were still only 2 lanes, instead of 3. But I think in an attempt to expand into 3 lanes, they tried to do it without lengthening the bridge.

As for tractor-trailers... about half the time I come down the ramp... there's a trailer in that right lane.

Another problem with that ramp, along with being so short... there's little visibility from the on-ramp and approaching vehicles. I'm sure those big rig drivers were equally surprised everytime I suddenly popped up to their right. The line of sight is seriously blocked by tons of trees.

I-94 E - Google Maps

I wonder if it would be worthwhile to redo the entire interchange... hum, maybe not.

 

You can see that car hugging the lane even though there is no one there. Hes knows that ramp. I usually use the other ramp from the west and I scare a lot of people but they get out of my way. The ramp from the tollway is bad too. The reason is the speed limit, that Highway was not meant for 55 and most people are doing 65 mph.

You can see the exit ramp is twice as big so they did rework that one and there is no room unless they do some thing like the tollway a few miles west.

 

HAHA... I didn't realize until just now...

if you go to the i-94 E map and go into street view... you can see what happens (if you move the viewpoint along the road like you would if you were driving).

the "google" vehicle (taking the pictures) hurriedly moves one lane over, while the SUV that came down the ramp eats the shoulder. Only managing to be "in" the lane after the google vehicle passes and the other ramp is about to merge.

a few times I drove into the shoulder myself, because I needed to speed up to squeeze into traffic. Otherwise, I would've been better off backing up the ramp and going local.

The only thing I can think of, to make it "safer" is to make it into a "diamond" interchange... or half-diamond, if they insist on exit from south or onto south only. But of course, that requires stop lights... and generally stopping traffic. (edit: thinking about it... the diamond IS what they did at the tollway. whoops, only decided to attempt to remember what the tollway interchange looked like after posting).

 

From that highway east the roads are small for the horse and buggy days. They stretched the roads to accommodate the new trucks which went from 96 inches to 102 which means the cabs also got bigger. I thought they just rebuilt that bridge and ramps a few years ago. They had their chance to change it then.

When they rebuilt the tollways they narrowed the lanes to get that 4th lane in. Whats funny the speed limit is 55 and the slowest you can go is 70 on the interstate. I miss the old 3 lane road that 2 cars could be side by side in the same lane if needed.

 

Oh, I remember the construction a few years ago... but it didn't seem like an actual rebuild... felt more like they just resurfaced the road.

I'm not sure folks around here want to put much thought into doing things "the proper" way.

On Hibbard, and later on Green Bay Rd... they resurfaced the road... THEN they cut into the road to do some construction and "repairs" leaving bumps and uneven road surfaces there. Wouldn't it have been better to plan the "repairs" to just as the old road surface was being torn up?!? Of course, one whole section "new road" was too thin and got chunks scraped off by the snow plows, requiring more patchwork.

 

They do the same thing here. Redo a road, then a bit later do repairs all over that cause tons of problems.

 

That year they did a lot of road work before the election to get on the Illinois pension plan before the tax increase. Now most of the streets need repair and they are still waiting to get paid from the first time. They did the work so fast that your right the road is uneven and is dangerous in some areas.

 

Part of Willow+I94 junction was under construction for past few days...

I'm still not entirely certain what they did.

 

Further north they are grinding the road to level it. I thought that highway was good for 100 years.

I wonder if they are planning on putting a toll both there again at that junction. I know they want to put speed cameras up but I thought that was for the side roads.

 

When I mentioned they were working on Willow, I thought I had a vague idea of what they were doing (not clear enough to me to say anything).

But apparently that was wrong. The only thing they're really doing is creating massive amounts of traffic.

What the hell are they doing?!?

 

^it's chicago... what can you expect. it's the city that investors and the business industry are shying away from... too much red tape.

 

I now think its to slow traffic and take pictures of cars and occupants because of NATO. Friday with no traffic, State police was causing a gapers block with two cars on the side with the lights on and they even had vehicles saying traffic stopped but no accident. I have been driving 30 years and they never had trucks saying stopped traffic ever. Sometimes on the electric signs but usually never a stoppage.

 

Some strange going-ons here.

Yesterday, I saw four Suburban SUVs going by, with blue and red flashing lights. I only got a bit of a look at the fourth, but it looked like a cage behind the driver's seat... prisoner transport? BUT, all four SUVs had no markings at all. They weren't black, but grey and brown. If the lights weren't flashing they'd look like anyone else (didn't see if they had the green lettered plates).

Then a day or two before that, I was crossing a road and saw that part of that road had been blocked off by a bunch of red/blue flashing lights... my route didn't take me near it so I dunno what was going on.

 

I got stuck today on the Interstate. I am now mad too. I was 45 minutes late for work because of a 10 mile back up. All the side roads too were down to one lane. Good news is I still got better than 30 mpg after running the car for 1.5 hours to go 30 miles. I guess I will see what tomorrow brings and have to leave 2 hours before I start work.