Chicago

TRoth · 10-05-2022, 09:04 AM

I live in Iowa, I am heading to southern Michigan to pick up our new 5th wheel. This is my first time pulling a 5th wheel. I know the traffic on I-80 and I-90 on the south end of Chicago can be rough and lots of construction. Has anyone taken Hwy 30 which is a little south of chicago to bypass Chicago. Thanks in advance.

**bikendan** · 10-05-2022, 09:40 AM

Moved thread from the General Community Discussion section to the On the Road/Travel Chat section's Central USA sub-forum.

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latner · 10-05-2022, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TRoth

I live in Iowa, I am heading to southern Michigan to pick up our new 5th wheel. This is my first time pulling a 5th wheel. I know the traffic on I-80 and I-90 on the south end of Chicago can be rough and lots of construction. Has anyone taken Hwy 30 which is a little south of chicago to bypass Chicago. Thanks in advance.

Lots of stop and go on 30. If you have the time and it makes you feel better you can go that way.

Jim34RL · 10-05-2022, 01:24 PM

I would not pull a 5er on US 30 at all. A lot and stop and go traffic plus you need to travel thru some extremely dense cities such as Joliet IL. There is also a lot of road construction on I80 around Joliet right now, sometimes down to one lane.

If you can I would drop down to I74 and use this to travel to Iowa. I know this might add a couple of hours to your trip, but it might be easier pull for you.

nvs4602 · 10-05-2022, 01:52 PM

I take 30 to my brother's house north of Chicago. Yes there are some towns to drive through but the roads aren't to bad. If you travel later in the day say after 6 or 7 pm traffic through towns has let up. Then there will be just truck traffic.

So timming your travel across 30 will help. It usually takes me about 4 hrs to go from I75 in Ohio to 65 in Merrillville, Indiana.

Rhumblefish · 10-05-2022, 01:53 PM

80/90 can be a pain, especially accessing Michigan from the South/West. I've used 30 successfully, but only when 80/90 are completely fubar'd, and then usually when coming westbound from Michigan (including snow season). Make good choices on travel times (try not to hit rush hour or weekend fleeing), though 80/90 can be backed up anytime.

FWIW, you can get a sense of traffic and incident reports with some of the real-time apps, including Waze. However, you don't have a much more viable alternative route to get back and forth between Cedar Rapids and MI without adding a LOT of miles.

Prep your navigator and make a choice (likely 80/90) but get them ready to look for an alternative, including jumping off/back on points, and have them able to look ahead to see what traffic is like (including incidents).

For what it's worth, traffic is ALWAYS bad, it's the incidents/accidents that make it worse, so if it's just a slowdown, you might as well stick with the problem you know (80/90) than one you don't.

Hope this helps. Just my opinion/YMMV.

tomkatb · 10-05-2022, 02:02 PM

Just got back from a wedding just north of Chicago. Pulling our fifth wheel.

Highway 57 from north of Champaign to the north side had awful slow downs. Averaged 5 mph for hours. 100 mile trip took 5 hours.

74 was fine from I 39 to Indianapolis.

MevetS · 10-05-2022, 03:57 PM

Going to, or for that matter from, Iowa is not a pleasant trip along the I80 corridor. Once you are, maybe 50 miles, west of Joliet it gets better. 80/94 is a miracle compared to the 80/94 split just past the Indiana border, in Illinois. If you are on the 80 stretch, be prepared to have your teeth rattled. Of course, when they finally decide to repave that stretch, it will screw things up even more.

I don't normally take the I30 stretch between Merrillville, In. In the old days, it could be a reasonable alternative route for 80/94. But then, it was often worse. I'm talking 25 years ago.

You might consider the I80 to I355 North to the I88 route. However, you do pay tolls.

My rule of thumb is to hit the Chicagoland area before 7 AM and then before 2 PM. To avoid much of the traffic. On weekends it's not so much rush hour traffic as it is weekend get away traffic. The get away traffic, especially in season, can be worse then rush hour.

lcv800 · 10-06-2022, 05:01 AM

Live in Chicago and travel 80/90 regularly. Just bite the bullet and avoid rush hours. Regardless of time, one accident and it's a mess. I would do it before 6am near Chicago or after 8pm.

1100mike · 10-06-2022, 05:59 AM

Drop south a little to Ft Wayne and use Hwy 24 west to I 39 in Illinois. Much nicer drive..

jeff64 · 10-06-2022, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TRoth

I live in Iowa, I am heading to southern Michigan to pick up our new 5th wheel. This is my first time pulling a 5th wheel. I know the traffic on I-80 and I-90 on the south end of Chicago can be rough and lots of construction. Has anyone taken Hwy 30 which is a little south of chicago to bypass Chicago. Thanks in advance.

US 30 is a bummer. Been there done that...

LittleBill · 10-06-2022, 09:06 PM

I live in Joliet, IL about 2 miles directly north of the I80/I55 intersection. You DEFINITELY don't want to travel through Joliet on US30. Semi's do travel along it but the speed limit is generally 35mph on the pretty much two lane road plus some tight turns and one possibly low viaduct that I'm not sure of the height, not to mention the stop,go,stop,go,etc. Even when you get past Joliet traveling through Plainfield up through Aurora can be time consuming.

Even though there is heavy construction on I80 from approximately MM131 through MM133, it is feasible to travel through safely with care. There are still two lanes in both directions. They are replacing bridges over railroads, creeks and city roads while expanding the I80 roadway to three lanes. The lanes will shift numerous times (typical of construction areas) as you travel this stretch.

On weekends they are also doing maintenance repair work on the two main bridges over the Des Plaines river. They are reducing lanes to one lane in one direction on alternating weekends (one weekend East bound, next weekend West bound) from 10PM Thursday to 5am Monday (they have opened them back up to two lanes earlier than Monday morning though). You can google I80 construction for more information.

99% of the time I get on I80 from I55 (whether it be East bound or West bound) as it is normally the quickest and most direct route for me. I have driven my 5er on I80 in both directions with minimal difficulty. Yes traffic can bog down when going East from I55 but as long as there hasn't been an accident it will move at a reasonable rate. I traveled to Indianapolis last Thursday and did encountered a couple of slow downs on I80 in eastern Illinois and Indiana as we made our way to I65. This weekend we are headed to Lincoln, NE on I80 which generally will not have those types of backups. The road is kind of rough from I55 (MM125) West to east of Minooka (MM122) though.

Note that I80 is a toll road for part of the road (MM155 to MM161). If you don't have an EZpass or Ipass you will need to go on-line to the Illinois tollway website to pay the tolls as there is no place to pay cash while on the road. The penalty for not paying can become an astronomical amount.

With all said I would stay on I80 and just use care. Remember if a semi can make it you can too.

Sorry for the rambling but hope it helps some.
Good luck and be safe -

TRoth · 10-06-2022, 10:31 PM

Thanks for all the great reply's. I went out on Wednesday. I decided to take Hwy 30 to get an idea of how it was. After driving it. I decided not to go that route. I headed home with my new 5th wheel this afternoon. I drove I-94 to I-80. I hit the Chicago area around 2:00 pm. I slowed down and took my time. And made it through with no problems. I guess timing is everything when going through this area. I would not want to do it everyday.

LittleBill · 10-07-2022, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TRoth

Thanks for all the great reply's. I went out on Wednesday. I decided to take Hwy 30 to get an idea of how it was. After driving it. I decided not to go that route. I headed home with my new 5th wheel this afternoon. I drove I-94 to I-80. I hit the Chicago area around 2:00 pm. I slowed down and took my time. And made it through with no problems. I guess timing is everything when going through this area. I would not want to do it everyday.

Glad you made it through OK. Yes timing is everything, as around Joliet there is always heavy truck traffic. The construction we have in Joliet seems to be worst than what you have in Iowa City when I went through today.

Safe travels -

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