20. Expanding the roads
As the nation began work on the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s, Chicago’s earlier planning and progress gave the city a jump on competitors. Construction projects were many, and freeways and access roads grew around and through Chicago. The Chicago Skyway opened to traffic in 1958. The Kennedy Expressway began carrying traffic between the Northwest Tollway and O’Hare International Airport, connecting the Loop to both, in 1960. It was fully completed the following year. The Dan Ryan Expressway opened in 1961. The Stevenson Expressway, following the right-of-way of the abandoned Illinois and Michigan Canal, fully opened in 1964.
As roads increased in size so did the traffic they carried. Chicago planners used North Lake Shore Drive to experiment with reversible lanes, designed to carry traffic in one direction during peak periods, and reversed to the opposite direction when needed, accommodating morning and evening rush hours. It proved so successful that sections of the Kennedy Expressway adopted the idea. The Dan Ryan eventually added express lanes, bypassing local exits, to accommodate through traffic during peak use. The freeways and limited access roads mimicked the influence on commerce and development originally introduced by the railroads, at the same time stripping them of much of their revenue generating freight and passengers.