CHICAGO — Drivers heading south out of Downtown and trying to hop on the Stevenson Expressway are in for a rude awakening.
The interchange between southbound Lake Shore Drive and the Stevenson Expressway is about to lose a few lanes.
Lanes will be closed and narrowed starting Monday as part of a $133 million project to reconstruct ramps and bridges between Lake Shore Drive and the Stevenson Expressway east of the Dan Ryan Expressway.
Guy Tridgell, Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman, said the changes would be in effect until the work on the ramps was done next year.
As a result of the project:
• The four lanes of southbound Lake Shore Drive approaching the ramp to the Stevenson will be reduced to three lanes, and each will be only 11 feet wide. The right lane will be designated an exit-only lane to the outbound Stevenson.
• The actual ramp to the Stevenson will be cut down from two lanes to one 11-foot-wide lane. Traffic will be moved to the right side of the ramp.
• Then, on the Stevenson, the three lanes will be reduced to two 11-foot-wide lanes in the area "immediately after the ramp itself" and will not go for "an extremely long distance," Tridgell said.
Construction on Lake Shore Drive's northbound ramp to the Stevenson Expressway started in June.
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