Lane closures ahead on Bishop Ford

July 21, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- More lane closures are in store for drivers who use the Bishop Ford Freeway.

Work on the Bishop Ford has been under way since May, from Martin Luther King Drive on the north to 159th Street on the south.

Up until now, the majority of the resurfacing job on the Bishop Ford has been done overnight, with little daytime disruption to traffic. That is about to change. Next week, crews will begin closing one lane in each direction from 159th to just north of 130th. Crews will work at the north end to remove and replace the guard rail in the center median.

"So Lane 1 will be taken out of service, and we'll maintain two lanes in each direction to protect workers and the motoring public from crossing over as we're removing and replacing guard rail," said Jacek Tyszkiewizc, IDOT implementation engineer.

The guardrail work north of Dolton should be done in about a month, and crews will reopen all lanes. The work south of Dolton is a little more extensive and could require permanent lane closures through November.

"South of Dolton we do have a couple bridges, we're doing bearing work underneath it, so we do like taking traffic off the bridge on the lane we're working with the bearings," said Tyszkiewizc.

Crews will be patching the tops of the bridges. Once that is done, the bridges will get an epoxy overlay to further protect the concrete.

The average daily traffic count on this stretch of the Bishop Ford is 145,000 vehicles, so you can expect delays once those lane closures are in place. IDOT recommends Interstate 57 as the best alternate.

Since this next phase of construction is more than a week away, you've got time to plan a detour.

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