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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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