The final weekend of closures around the Jane Byrne Interchange overhaul are set to kick off tonight, so if you're planning on traveling anywhere in the city by car this weekend you should probably change course and take the El. The outbound Eisenhower at the interchange will close at 10pm tonight and the inbound Kennedy between Ohio and Harrison Streets will be reduced to one lane at 8pm on Saturday. All lanes will be reopened by 5am on Monday morning.
If you're forced to drive anywhere close to downtown this weekend, expect some pretty heavy delays. Even if you're not driving on the highway, traffic will likely spill out onto local streets. If you're planning on catching the train, keep in mind that due to previously scheduled construction buses will replace Green and Pink Line service between Clinton and Clark/Lake from 2am to 10am on Saturday, and the Blue Line will be running on just one track between Jackson and Racine from 10pm on Saturday until 4am on Sunday.
According to the Illinois Department of Transportation, the closures will give way for the installation of steel beams for a new flyover bridge that will link the inbound Dan Ryan to the outbound Kennedy—an improvement that definitely makes this weekend's delays worth it. The interchange is one of the slowest and most congested bottlenecks in the country, and the overhaul should go a long way in making it a less painful stretch to pass through.