Doug Kerr's 2006 photos from when there was button copy south of downtown. Yes, it's possible to get up to H, when the next several blocks in a row all have their own exits (with corresponding left entrances eastbound). They don't make 'em like this anymore.


The modern version of Doug's third photo has about the same layout, minus the button copy, and with an even smaller "Stevenson Expy" that you're guaranteed to miss in a blur at speed. Luckily, the Dan Ryan Expwy. never moves at speed.


I-90/94 curves around the stripey Chicago Dept. of Water Management pump station at Harrison St. It was important enough to put a wide break in the median just south of the all-important Circle Interchange with I-290.


A taste of one of the most crowded miles of freeway in existence, a stretch of 6 interchanges in 6 blocks. Both directions of I-90/94 have left entrances and right exits, maintaining sanity through repetition and the hope that no one wants to use the freeway for ¼ mile. The first photo shows the entrance from Jackson Blvd. and the second photo shows the Adams St. overpass, together forming the two directions of former US 66. (66 was originally just on Jackson Blvd. until Chicago converted downtown to one-way couplets.)


Bridge marker.


Riding the local lanes to a Doug Kerr photo. I was in the express lanes at this point, so I don't know whether the sign is gone or I just couldn't see it from the center.


While I've paused, here's a connecting slip ramp out of the reversible express lanes about a mile from Exit 45. The reason there's a third sign after the split is because it's on the back of the EB split to the local lanes, and IDOT decided they'd rather put up a sign than leave a large blank space on the back of another sign.


The rest of the local lanes the last two photos are on the left and right sides of the same gantry. I-90 doesn't exit because the multiplex uses I-94's exit numbers, but rather vice versa. Historically, I-90 exited at I-290 and headed west on the Eisenhower Expwy. This split was therefore I-94 heading north to Milwaukee and an unnumbered freeway toward O'Hare Airport. (Incidentally, button copy is cool, but there's no way to tell that O'Hare is an airport and not a town. Frequent travelers who are new to Chicago might be just smart enough to dangerously think that O'Hare Airport is outside "O'Hare" city, even though there is no city.) When determining exit numbers, it was a no-brainer to use the Interstate as the basis, even though the Kennedy Expwy. mainline doesn't follow 94.


This is how the express lanes look as they come to an end. The I-90 branch just merges into the left side of the local lanes, but the I-94 branch winds over and under interchange ramps and cross streets before getting back to the I-94 mainline. As it darts back and forth, it has to avoid two reverse-direction entrances from I-90 and I-94 (in the order encountered traveling WB).

Switch to the eastbound side
Exit 43B to I-90 alone
Onto I-94 alone
Back to I-90/I-94 main page

Exit 53 to I-55
Exit 51H to I-290
Up onto Jackson Blvd. and Adams St., former US 66
Exit 45A to Addison St.
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