Recent traffic woes in Chicago likely to worsen before it gets better — and then there’s the marathon on Sunday

Logan Square resident Matthew Cavanagh wasn’t exactly thrilled about returning to work at his west suburban office given his admitted disdain for long daily commutes, but he’s developed a good strategy to avoid morning gridlock on the few days he now spends working in the office.

“In the morning, it doesn’t bother me too much. If I leave my house before 6:30 a.m., I can get to Oak Brook in a good 45 minutes or so,” said Cavanagh, who works as a director of leasing for retail space. “I either have to leave before 6:30 or after 9 o’clock.” Unfortunately, his commute home doesn’t offer the same ease.

“In the afternoon, there’s no way to go. From 2:30 to like 8 p.m., it’s the same story. It doesn’t look much better. Fridays are always worse,” he said.

The recent traffic backups aren’t a mirage, say transportation officials. It’s really a perfect storm of ongoing construction projects occurring at nearly all points of the expressway system. This includes the Jane Byrne Interchange project, the behind schedule and over budget construction job that offers one of the worst choke points for congestion in the heart of downtown Chicago.

This expressway congestion bleeds into major thoroughfare streets and DuSable Lake Shore Drive. The problem is likely to persist during the short term and, particularly with the Bank of America Chicago Marathon arriving in town Sunday, closing even more heavily traveled downtown streets beginning this week.

The interchange named for the city’s first woman mayor connects motorists to Chicago’s four major expressways that divide the city and Lower Wacker Drive. Rebuilding the crumbling and congested interchange began in 2013, and was originally scheduled to be finished in June 2018, according to IDOT. About 27 parts of the project have been completed, with the remaining eight expected to be finished by year’s end.

Illinois has also received a huge infusion of cash for a host of infrastructure projects. Last month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced $34.6 billion in funding over the next six years to help improve Illinois roadways, bridges and transit systems as part of his Rebuild Illinois initiative.

In addition to the Byrne Interchange work, there’s also repaving projects on Interstate 57 extending to Kankakee and Illinois 173 from Wadsworth, to in Zion.

[ It’s road construction season. Expect work on the Tri-State and Byrne Interchange. ]

The last week in September saw some of the worst traffic in recent memory, thanks not only to the ongoing construction — including the start of three-weekend lane reductions on Interstate 57 to accommodate ramp patching and resurfacing — but also an emergency closure of the outbound Dan Ryan Expressway ramp to the outbound Stevenson Expressway that isn’t expected to completed until Sunday, according to IDOT.

During the same week, IDOT announced bridge deck repairs to Interstate 80 near Joliet that would require ramp and lane closures “over multiple extended weekends.” Add in run-of-the-mill traffic accidents and first-responder emergencies such as fires and shootings that can shutter traffic, and you’ve got long travel times.

Cavanagh said he realized that his commute was worse following Labor Day weekend after seeing a TV news report announcing the Sept. 9 start of repairs to the Peterson Avenue bridge over the Edens Expressway. “It seems that everything outbound, from downtown going north has been kind of a nightmare ever since,” he said.

Cavanagh said his stress level was far higher when he worked exclusively at his suburban office for about five years. “When I was doing it everyday, it had a real effect on my life, profoundly,” said Cavanagh, 35. “Losing two hours a day, it (does affect) your mental health. If you had a great day at the office and then you do that for an hour-and-a-half and you’re just miserable and no fun to be around.”

Transit experts say that Chicago, which has some of the worst congestion of any American city, is also grappling with its return to normalcy following closures brought on by the pandemic. The added congestion comes at a time when many workers such as Cavanagh are returning to the office after two years of work-from-home protocols. Rider usage of transit systems such as the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra and Pace also haven’t yet returned to normal.

Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning which analyzes traffic trends, found that while car trips by personal vehicles have returned to near or above pre-pandemic levels, travel times have shifted from the “traditional” rush hour periods to trips to more spread through the day.

Similarly, Total Traffic & Weather Network, which provides traffic, transit and weather information to media companies found that recent Chicago area traffic was indeed “up across the board,” but significantly more among “total number of trips” than among “total miles traveled.”

“In other words, drivers are making more trips, but they’re shorter trips on average,” Dan Ginsburg, TTWN’s director of operations said in an email.

Ginsburg said his group, working with traffic data provided by their partners, TrafficCarma Mobility Trends, also saw the most significant increases in traffic volume during middays and that the days with the heaviest morning and afternoon rush hours were Wednesdays and Thursdays, while the lightest were Mondays and Fridays.

Analysts assume this is because “most employees working on a “hybrid” in-office schedule are being asked or choosing to come into the office in the middle of the week.”

wlee@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @Midnoircowboy