Motorists merging onto Interstate 74 eastbound from the downtown Jefferson Avenue ramp, will notice a change when the Murray Baker Bridge reopens.
The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is implementing ramp metering during afternoon rush hour. Drivers in two different lanes will stop on the ramp until they get a green light.
"The intent is to break up platoons of vehicles on the ramp by metering them one at a time during the afternoon peak hour," said Ben Tellefson, the traffic planning and design engineer at IDOT District 4. "It'll make it safer to merge onto I-74 and maintain traffic onto the freeway."
Tellefson said the ramp was a choke point during the afternoon commute. It's also an accident-prone area, with 57 crashes recorded within a quarter-mile of the ramp between 2014 and 2018.
Tellefson said ramp metering will make merging faster and safer.
"The lights will change every four or five seconds or so," he said. "And that will just create that gap between vehicles trying to merge into the interstate, so you don't have those four or five cars in a row trying to get in there at the same time."
The ramp metering will be in effect from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays. Tellefson said the larger Murray Baker Bridge renovation work is still slated for completion by the end of October, with reopening anticipated in November.
The $42.2 million project began in March. Motorist have detoured to cross the Illinois River since the renovation began in March.
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