{"id":782939,"date":"2026-05-08T22:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T22:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/782939\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T22:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T22:59:15","slug":"chicago-area-construction-season-kicks-off-with-work-throughout-city-suburbs-what-to-know-about-i-80-i-355-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/782939\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago-area construction season kicks off with work throughout city, suburbs | What to know about I-80, I-355, more"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">CHICAGO (WLS) &#8212; Construction season is back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson kicked off the 2026 construction season highlighting projects across the city as part of his &#8220;Build Better Together&#8221; initiative.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7chicago.com\/watch\/live\/11064984\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">City leaders say 15 wards saw zero traffic fatalities last year, thanks in part to added bike lanes, pedestrian islands and safer intersections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;Spring in Chicago means residents and families can expect to see more orange cones, more crews and more equipment on our streets. And that&#8217;s a good thing, Chicago. It means we are hard at work beautifying and investing in our beloved city,&#8221; Johnson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">In the suburbs, there is construction on the Bishop Ford Freeway. A two-year, $93 million project is already underway. Crews are repairing bridges and resurfacing lanes from Martin Luther King Drive to 159th Street.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Another large project is also underway on Interstate 80. Crews are tackling complex bridge and ramp work in Joliet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><strong class=\"vtkaO \">RELATED: <\/strong><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7chicago.com\/post\/state-street-bridge-chicago-river-downtown-reopens-department-transportation-says\/18789024\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">State Street Bridge over Chicago River downtown reopens: CDOT<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">There are also delays along Illinois Route 53, Interstate 355 and Touhy Avenue near O&#8217;Hare. Soon, more resurfacing work and changes to configurations are coming; so drivers need to be prepared and slow down through work zones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;Oftentimes, you have lane shifts; you have tapers that are not normal. You have narrower lanes. We really want drivers to pay attention to those work zone speed limits. Driving around we&#8217;ve seen a lot of high-speed crashes in work zones,&#8221; said Jon Schumacher, district one bureau chief for the Illinois Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The massive tollway rebuild on Interstate 294 is entering its second-to-last year, with continued work near North Avenue and a major overhaul of the always-congested Interstate 88\/Interstate 290 interchange.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">There are also dozens of smaller projects across the area, from road widening in McHenry County to resurfacing in Lake County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">Officials say all of this work is ultimately about safety and long-term improvements. But in the short-term, it means slowdowns and a lot of detours.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (WLS) &#8212; Construction season is back. In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson kicked off the 2026 construction season&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":782940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[320308,960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-782939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-320308","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116541440980266248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}