Illinois Tollway builds bridges for planes trains and automobiles as it constructs new I-490 Tollway
Construction on the new I-490 Tollway focused on building a dozen bridges, including some that won’t ever carry cars or trucks.
In an unusual twist, one of the bridges started by the Illinois Tollway was an 1,800-foot-long railroad bridge that will help create room for I-490 by carrying Union Pacific trains over the CPKC rail yard in Franklin Park and Bensenville.
And a specialized bridge completed in 2024 isn’t for vehicles or trains—it’s designed for airplanes. At the edge of O’Hare International Airport, the Tollway built a narrow steel bridge to raise the runway approach lights that guide jets to safe landings out of the path of the new road.
The remaining bridges completed or under construction then will carry traffic on the new 6-mile-long Tollway, including a towering 80-foot-tall ramp that soars over the Tri-State Tollway (I-294) and connects it with I-490.
Constructing a new, six-lane Tollway from scratch in a heavily developed area is a complex process—and some of the most challenging aspects of building I-490 involve constructing an array of bridges to serve a range of different needs.
The I-490 Tollway will skirt the western edge of O’Hare Airport, connecting I-294 with the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90) and the Illinois Route 390 Tollway, while also providing access for the first time to the western side of O’Hare Airport. Scheduled for completion in 2027, the new Tollway is part of the $4.3 billion Elgin O’Hare Western Access Project designed to reduce traffic congestion, increase mobility and boost economic development in areas surrounding the airport.
Bridges are playing a critical role in linking I-490 to existing Tollways, including bridges connecting the new road to I-294 at its southern end and to I-90 in the north.
At the southern end, crews in 2024 substantially completed a nearly 2,000-foot-long ramp that connects I-490 to northbound I-294. The curving ramp stands more than 80 feet above ground as it arches over I-294
At its northern end, a bridge carrying I-490 across a corner of the O’Hare Reservoir and Higgins Creek was completed as crews finished pouring the concrete decks and walls. That bridge links I-490 to the interchange connecting it to I-90 in Des Plaines.
Farther south, work began in 2024 on six ramp bridges at the I-490/Illinois Route 390 Tollway Interchange that will arch over York Road in Bensenville and allow traffic to enter and exit the western edge of O’Hare Airport, as well as providing connections to I-490 from all directions. The complex interchange also will link those Tollways to York Road to improve access to local communities.
Another bridge the Tollway completed near O’Hare Airport in 2024 won’t help drivers get around, but will help airliners land safely at the airport.
The planned path of I-490 will take it directly through strings of more than a dozen approach lights that flash sequentially to direct jets onto each of the four major east-west runways the new road will skirt.
The Tollway is building specialized steel bridges to raise several of the approach lights for each runway above the I-490 right-of-way so the new road can be built, while jets can continue to use the lights as a navigational aid to safely land at O’Hare at night or when visibility is poor.
The spacing between the lights is critical, so engineers and construction crews must ensure that each light on the new bridges maintained the same spacing required of the other lights on the ground at either end of each bridge.
In 2024, the Tollway completed construction of the light bridge at the end of Runway 10 Center. Two other light bridges already have been completed, while the fourth and final light bridge is scheduled to be built in 2025.
Near its southern end, I-490 runs along the edge of the sprawling CPKC rail yard. To make room for the new road, crew moved railroad tracks and began building the rail bridge for UP trains to travel over a portion of the yard without disrupting other rail traffic.
Crews in 2024 also began building two 1,800-foot-long spans to carry I-490 over a section of the rail yard.
On the I-490 Tollway, bridges are a critical component of the project, regardless of whether they’re built for trains, planes or automobiles.