Skip to main content

Dan Ryan Expressway (Interstate 90 and 94 in Chicago)

By
Recently while visiting the City of Chicago I drove the entirety of the Dan Ryan Expressway.


The Dan Ryan Expressway refers to a freeway section of Interstate 90 and Interstate 94 in Chicago.  The Dan Ryan Expressway is 11.47 miles in length and begins at junction of I-290 with I-90/I-94 in downtown Chicago.  The Dan Ryan Expressway is fully traversed southward by I-94 to a junction with I-57.  I-90 is only partially aligned on the Dan Ryan Expressway as it splits away from I-94 on the the Chicago Skyway Tollway.  The Dan Ryan Expressway is one of the busiest freeways in the country with daily traffic counts exceeding 300,000.

According to chicagoroads.com construction of the Dan Ryan Expressway began in 1958 when the first contract bids were accepted.  The first 3 mile portion of the Dan Ryan Expressway opened in 1961 with the majority of remaining alignment opening in 1962.  Interestingly I-90 was originally aligned on the entirety of the Dan Ryan Expressway whereas I-94 split onto the Chicago Skyway.  I-90 and I-94 swapped alignments in 1963.

chicagoroads.com on the Dan Ryan Expressway

Although I did clinch the Dan Ryan Expressway on my trip I did not clinch a single direction of travel.  My initial journey on the Dan Ryan Expressway was on I-90/I-94 east from the junction of I-290/Eisenhower Expressway at the end of the Kennedy Expressway (also I-90/I-94) in downtown Chicago.



The first major highway junction on I-90/I-94 east on the Dan Ryan Expressway is at I-55 at Exit 53.





Past the junction with I-55 the route of I-90/I-94 east on the Dan Ryan Expressway splits into Express Lanes and local lanes.  The Express Lane continues to Garfield Boulevard at Exit 57.  I stuck to the local lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway which passed by Comiskey Park which is home to the Chicago White Sox.










A new set of Express Lanes to 79th Street begin past Garfield Boulevard.  I stuck to the local lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway as the junction for I-90 east onto the Chicago Skyway isn't accessible from the Express Lanes.













On my departing trip from Chicago I took I-90 on the Chicago Skyway east towards the Indiana Toll Road.  Back in 2017 I visited both the Chicago Skyway and Indiana Toll Road.

Great Lakes Road Trip Day 10 Part 1; downtown Chicago, the end of US Route 66 and Chicago Skyway

Great Lakes Road Trip Day 10 Part 2; Indiana Toll Road, dunes and Ohio Turnpike

Upon my return to the Chicago Area I took I-94 west after I found out the Pullman neighborhood was recently declared a National Monument.  After leaving the Pullman neighborhood I rejoined the Dan Ryan Expressway on I-94 west at the terminus of I-57.


The view of downtown Chicago from the Dan Ryan Expressway in the cover photo of this blog was obtained from I-90/I-94 west approaching I-55.







Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I-40 rockslide uncovers old debates on highway

By
The Asheville Citizen-Times continues to do a great job covering all the angles of the Interstate 40 Haywood County rock slide. An article in Sunday's edition provides a strong historical perspective on how the Pigeon River routing of Interstate 40 came about. And perhaps most strikingly, in an article that ran just prior to the highway's opening in the fall of 1968, how engineers from both Tennessee and North Carolina warned "...that slides would probably be a major problem along the route for many years." On February 12, 1969, not long after the Interstate opened, the first rock slide that would close I-40 occurred. Like many other Interstates within North Carolina, Interstate 40 through the mountains has a history prior to formation of the Interstate Highway System and was also a heated political battle between local communities. The discussion for a road that would eventually become Interstate 40 dates back to the 1940's as the idea for interregional high
2 comments
Read more

Interstate 210 the Foothill Freeway

By
The combined Interstate 210/California State Route 210 corridor of the Foothill Freeway is approximately 85.31-miles.  The Interstate 210/California State Route 210 corridor begins at Interstate 5 at the northern outskirts of Los Angeles and travels east to Interstate 10 in Redlands of San Bernardino County.  Interstate 210 is presently signed on the 44.9-mile segment of the Foothill Freeway between Interstate 5 and California State Route 57.  California State Route 210 makes up the remaining 40.41 miles of the Foothill Freeway east to Interstate 10.  Interstate 210 is still classified by the Federal Highway Administration as existing on what is now signed as California State Route 57 from San Dimas south to Interstate 10.  The focus of this blog will mostly be on the history of Interstate 210 segment of the Foothill Freeway.   Part 1; the history of Interstate 210 and California State Route 210 Interstate 210 (I-210) was approved as a chargeable Interstate during September of
Post a Comment
Read more

White Rock Road; the historic highway corridor serving Mariposa County since the 1850s

By
White Rock Road is a twenty-eight-mile-long highway corridor which begins at the Chowchilla River in Merced County and ends at Old Highway 18 in Mariposa County near the town site of Bridgeport.  The portion of White Rock Road between the Merced County and Mariposa County line to Bridgeport (via the town site of White Rock) is one of the oldest continuously used highway corridors in California.  Once known as the "Mariposa River Road" the corridor was developed in the 1850s as one of the two primary highways to the mining communities of Mariposa County.   White Rock Road was bypassed in 1918 when Legislative Route Number 18 was completed between Merced and Mariposa.  The corridor was for time known as Mariposa and Le Grand Road prior to the construction of Mariposa Creek Dam (formerly Mariposa River) in 1948.  Following construction of the dam the roadway took the name it has now and was extended through Merced County to the Chowchilla River.  Much of modern White Rock Road i
Post a Comment
Read more