I-90, 94 (the Dan Ryan Expressway south of the interchange and the JFKennedy Expressway north) runs north-south and the Eisenhower Expressway runs east-west. The Eisenhower is I-290 west of the interchange, to the east is an un-numbered 'spur' that could easily carry an odd '3di' I-route number if not for the drawbridge over the Chicago River about 1/2 mile (1km) to the east.
This first installment is one of the most recognizable interchanges in the entire USA. It is also one of the TIGHTEST directional freeway to freeway interchanges in the USA. This connection between two 8 lane freeways covers all of the area of 4 city blocks, the ramps all have posted safe maximum speeds as slow as 25 km/h. During weekdays, this is often adequate for the speed of the traffic flowing through it in general, but these ramps do have a NASTY habit of sneaking up on unwary out-of-towners on nights and weekends when Chicago expressway traffic often zooms along at 130 km/h and faster.
A few years ago, the Dan Rayn Expressway (I-90, 94) south of this interchange was re-engineered, with the ramps between this interchange and Roosevelt Rd (the first interchange south of the Eisenhower) redesigned to eliminate a comfusing crossover movement in both directions. The northbound to eastbound/westbound ramps now diverge from the Dan Ryan under Roosevelt Rd. Similar re-engineering was done to the JFKennedy to the north in recent years too.
Interesting tidbits:
>Note the 'rapid-fire' off ramps on the JFKennedy Expressway (I-90, 94) north of this interchange, there are seperate ones for each cross street, each one ONE BLOCK from the next one. There are *6* southbound (the ramp from southbound JFKennedy to eastbound and westbound Eisenhower is the *7th*, one block south of the 6th) and *5* northbound. Although they cannot be made out on this map, there are matching LEFT ON RAMPS (5 northbound and 4 southbound), each one also one block from the others, in both directions. The on ramps each feed into a special left merging lane, I believe that the northbound left merging lane continues to feed into the outbound slip ramp to the reversable express lanes. I know of no other place where so many seperate interchanges are packed so closely together.
>Also note the water pumping station in the median of the Dan Ryan directly across Harrison St. from the interchange. There is an accident investigation pull off area in the median on the south side of this structure.
>The 'Congress-Douglas' ('Blue line') CTA rapid transit 'EL' line runs east-west under this interchange.
>I-290 was I-90 until it was rerouted to the JFKennedy in about 1979. The JFKennedy and Northwest Tollway west of the 'Edens Expressway' (I-94) was I-194 before then.
One change I would make:
>Renumber I-290 east of the Tri-State Tollway (I-294) to 'I-88'.
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