Kennedy Expressway Traffic Worst in Decades Despite Project Completion

Commuters driving between downtown Chicago and O’Hare International Airport faced the worst expressway traffic in more than two decades during a rehabilitation project that started in March 2023 and wrapped up in October 2025, according to an analysis of 22 years of drive-time data conducted by WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Record Delays During the Rehabilitation

The state of Illinois spent more than $170 million on the 7.5-mile stretch of the Kennedy Expressway between downtown and the Edens Expressway junction. The traffic data analysis revealed that June 2025 produced the worst backups ever recorded on the outbound Kennedy. Drivers faced an average commute time of 74 minutes to travel from downtown to O’Hare between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays that month, with average outbound travel times exceeding 65 minutes for every hour between noon and 7 p.m.

Joseph Schwieterman, a transportation professor and director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University, noted the severity of the congestion in the WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times reporting. We see that motorists have lived through multiple years of congestion, Schwieterman said. And it’s not just rush hour. It’s all times of day. He added that chronic backups and the lack of a quicker rail link between O’Hare and downtown damage the city’s reputation with visitors.

Inbound Commutes Worsen After State Project Ends

Despite Gov. JB Pritzker’s declaration a year ago that the main Kennedy project was finished and would lead to faster commutes, afternoon traffic jams heading inbound toward downtown have actually worsened. WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times found that the worst time to travel from O’Hare to the Jane Byrne Interchange occurred between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays this June, resulting in an average drive time of 75 minutes.

The persistent gridlock is exacerbated by a separate, overlapping initiative: the Foster Avenue bridge reconstruction project over the Kennedy on the Northwest Side. That work has lagged far behind schedule with repeated delays, according to state documents obtained by WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times. IDOT officials stated that the four combined road projects on the corridor cost taxpayers about $225 million and reduced capacity by approximately 33%, while driver preference for personal vehicles over public transit since the coronavirus pandemic also contributed to longer travel times.

Commuters Seek Alternative Transit Options

The daily gridlock has forced many of the roughly 275,000 daily commuters to rethink their travel habits. Taylor Sticha, a 35-year-old lifelong Chicago resident living in Irving Park, reported that her drive time skyrocketed from 25 minutes to an hour and 20 minutes almost overnight. To bypass the expressway, she purchased an e-bike to travel about 11 miles down the Lakefront Trail from the North Side to her job on the South Side, turning her commute into an hour-long ride each way.

Vivian Haritos, a 46-year-old grant writer living in Albany Park, described the traffic as a severe mental strain. I’ve commuted my whole life and traversed the same distance by car my whole life getting to and from school or work, and it’s just never been this bad, Haritos said. I’ve never experienced such horrific traffic. She stated that the delays negatively impacted her quality of life and reduced her willingness to leave home after work.

I wasn’t mentally prepared for it. It definitely affected my life negatively and affected relationships.

Vivian Haritos