Welcome to the GCM Travel Site

• Real-time map of road congestion and construction data
• Construction and closure reports
• Congestion and Travel time reports
• Links to video images available in the corridor
• Links to transportation related sites in the corridor
• www.iltrafficalert.com - IDOT's free e-mail alert system

RSS 2.0 News Feed:

IDOT Suspends Lane Closures for 4th of July Holiday Weekend

IDOT will suspend construction-related lane closures starting at 3pm, Thursday, July 2, to midnight, Sunday, July 5.

Wherever a road is closed, a detour will be posted.   In some areas, there will be lane restrictions.

Due to the nature of some projects, there will be a number of work zones that will continue to have lane closures.  Motorists are advised to slow down and be alert in thsoe work zones, and are reminded that work zone speed limits are still in effect.  For more iformation about ongoing construction projects, motorists can check IDOT's travelere Web site www.gettingaroundillinois.com , or the Construction Reports page of the gcmtravel.com website. Location of construction is noted on the maps.

Interstate road information is also available at 1-800-452-IDOT (4368).

IDOT Officials Stress Safety for Motorists During the 4th of July Weekend

IDOT Secretary Gary Hannig today urged IL drivers to buckle up and stay sober as they get ready to hit the roadways for the 4th of July weekend.  Secretary Hannig also announced that IDOT will make sure roads are open wherever possible, but some projects will continue, resulting in the lane closures over the holiday weekend.  Motorists are advised to comply with the posted speed limit of 45 miles per hour while driving through a work zone at all times.  IDOT is also working in conjunction with IL state Police to make sure drivers are staying sober.  As families and friends come together to celebrate this holiday season, ISP patrols will target impaired drivers in an effort to save lves by preventing alcohol-related crashes.

"While we want everyone to enjoy their holiday weekend, we must put safety first and remind motorists to not drink and drive and to be conscious of work zones," said IDOT Secretary Gary Hannig.  "We will limit lane closures where possible to provide some relief to those traveling over the holiday weekend, but some areas will still have workers present, so please obey the posted speed limits and drive cautiously.

Delays Expected Along US-30 in Plainfield/Oswego Area until Mid-August

Closures for drainage project move southeast into Plainfield

Construction of new box culverts along US-30 is ending in the Aurora/Montgomery area, but another mile of work, between 119th St and 127th St, will extend the project southeast from Oswego into Plainfield with a single-lane configuration for about five weeks. Improved drainage is the goal for the project runs July 7 through mid August, weather permitting.

Traffic along a one-mile stretch of US-30 between 119th St and 127th St will be reduced to a single-lane of traffic at all times during the five-week project. Direction of traffic flow will be regulated by temporary traffic signals. Drivers should allow extra time or seek alternate routes when traveling in the area. All work and related closures are weather dependent.

New: GCM Travel User Survey

In an effort to improve services that we provide to our valued customers and users, the Gateway Traveler Information System has implemented a user survey. The survey asks about your preferences in using the GCM Travel web site and the Illinois Traffic Alert System and seeks input from you on which new features that you would like to see on the site. The survey is completely anonymous and takes less than two minutes to complete. The results will help us to focus our ongoing efforts on the features that our users find most useful. Please take a moment to fill out our User Survey and help us to provide better service. In addition, feel free to send any other comments you have about the site to GCM Webmaster.

Bishop Ford Freeway Patching & Resurfacing to Run through Fall 2009

The major rehabilitation project along the Bishop Ford Freeway (I-94) will run through Fall 2009 with nighttime closures anticipated through Spring 2010. Much of the work will be performed during overnight hours and weekends.

The work zone will encompass a nine-mile stretch, in both directions, from Dr M L King Jr Dr (400E) to 159^th St.

Lane closures should be expected during overnight hours of 8 pm to 5 am with traffic reduced to one lane in many areas. Efforts will be made to maintain three lanes during peak hours but in some sections traffic will be reduced to two lanes for extended periods. Weekend traffic will be restricted to two lanes in most work zone areas. The Stony Island Feeder Ramp will be reduced to a single lane in each direction at various times.

In addition, entrance and exit ramps at 111^th St, 115^th St, 130^th St, Sibley Blvd (147^th St)  and 159^th St will be closed intermittently with detours posted for ramp closures. No ramps will be closed concurrently.

Heavy congestion should be expected at all times and drivers are urged to consider alternate routes and/or public transportation.

"Drive Less, Live More" Campaign

Through an initiative created by IDOT, seven public transportation agencies have launched a public education campaign called Drive Less, Live More. Partners include the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA), Metra and Pace. This campaign is designed to provide drivers with easy access to information that provides alternatives to driving. A key part of the campaign is the www.drivelesslivemore.com web site which was funded under a CMAQ grant from the FHWA. The web site features a trip planner, transit system maps and schedules, travel advisories and a commute-cost calculator.

In addition to the website, the campaign will also feature billboards, radio advertising and promotions to promote driving alternatives such as  public transit, vanpools, biking and rollerblading.

GCM Web Site Improvements

We have implemented some improvements to the GCM web site to make it more convenient to use:

• When you scroll and zoom a map to a particular view, the location and zoom information is stored in a cookie on your browser. With this improvement, you can refresh the map to update its real-time information without losing track of the area you were viewing. The layers that you have chosen to view are also saved.The cookie is maintained so your preferred viewing area will be ready to use when you return to the site.
• The "Reset zoom" map tool has been replaced by the "Reset map" tool which resets the map to its initial location and zoom.
• A "My Travel Preferences" link has been added to the report pages. You may use this link to view the reports for your preferred locations after viewing the reports for another location

Keep Us Alive Drive 45

Keep Us Alive Drive 45 is our commitment to keep workers and motorists safe in work zones. Each year, many people are killed in construction zone accidents, both commuters and workers. Please abide the posted speed limit in work zones.When workers are present, it's 45 M.P.H. - It's The Law.

Join us in our pledge to increase awareness and promote safe driving in our work zones by displaying an orange ribbon.Together we can make our roadways a safer place to commute and work. With your help, we can see to it that a construction zone is not an end zone.

Free! Illinois Traffic Alert System

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and its partner,  The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), have developed the Illinois Traffic Alert System. You may register to receive customized traffic reports containing vehicle speeds, travel times, construction, congestion and incident information through your e-mail inbox, cell phone text messaging or other e-mail enabled mobile device. The system is initially being deployed in the Chicagoland area as part of IDOT's congestion mitigation effort and will be deployed statewide in the near future. When you register, follow the instructions in order to:

1. Choose the roadway segments about which you want to be notified
2. Select the two times of day when you want to receive alerts
3. Select the days of the week you want to receive alerts
4. Customize alerts so you will receive them only if the average speed on the road is below what you select
5. Customize the type of data you want to receive: incidents, construction, congestion and/or travel times

GCM Travel Camera Report

The GCM Travel site now has added more camera snapshots and an improved camera report to help you view current traffic conditions. As on the other reports, you may view information about the cameras and the live camera images on a given roadway or on the roadways in your MyTravel "Default Locations".The camera report also includes a thumbnail of the most recent image available from the camera. You may click on the thumbnail to view a larger image together with reference views from the camera.

Work Zone Safety

Click here for an Illinois Department of Transportation work zone safety message.

Historical Travel Time Information

Based on requests from you, the users of www.gcmtravel.com, we are pleased to announce the availability of historical travel time data for comparison to real-time conditions.

We presently have several years of data available for comparison.

Historical data is available through our Reports and through clicking our travel time icons on the Maps.

Retrieval allows the user to initially see the real-time Travel Time data for today graphed against the collected data for the given day of the week. The X-axis (Horizontal) is a plot of the hours of the day starting at midnight. The Y-axis (Vertical) is the travel time range for the given route.

By selecting More Detail (below the graph) you can plot the days of the week of your choice against today.

The user can also review different routes using the pull-down and Make Chart button.

We expect this new tool to assist motorists with trip planning and alternate route options relative to historical and real-time traffic conditions.

Note: The graphical data for Illinois Tollway routes from approximately 12:30 am to roughly 4:00 am should be disregarded, as the systems producing this data are subject to nightly processes that interrupt and impact the data availabilityvia www.gcmtravel.com.

Wireless Travel Times

The Illinois Department of Transportation provides the 'beta' availability of a wireless-friendly version of Chicago Area Travel Times as part of the overall traveler information services from www.gcmtravel.com.

This new feature is an extension of our existing Chicago Quick Traffic Report, available at ChicagoQuickTraffic.jsp, that displays travel time information of common regional interest.

The wireless friendly page is www.gcmtravel.com.

Using a wireless device with web enabled capability many cellular services will allow a majority of our customers to access this new page.

The public can then navigate through a list of Expressways and Tollways to access a list of travel times for the chosen route.

We anticipate that most users will have no trouble with the new page. We ask that those experiencing difficulty with the new wireless report to email us at GCM webmaster.Include your cellular service provider and device make and model to help us identify any issues.

The page was built around the following specification.

Your mobile device must support wireless markup language version 1.1 (WML 1.1) and wireless application protocol 2.0(WAP 2.0), contact your mobile provider for more information.

This feature is not intended for use while operating motor vehicles. Please drive safely and responsibly.

Reversible Lanes Depiction

The www.gcmtravel.com web site now provides a more straightforward distinction for direction of travel in the reversible lanes.

Two sets of color coded congestion segmentation are now displayed on the map. One representing outbound or northwest bound traffic flow and one for inbound or southeast bound traffic flow. The direction NOT exclusively colored gray is the live direction of flow. It should be noted that during transition of the reversible lane direction, both directions will appear gray as neither direction is fully open. As traffic begins to use the reversible lanes after a transition, the appropriate direction will resume with congestion colors.

The diagram details the map layout of this area.

From southeast to northwest the Kennedy Reversible segmentation is defined as: Inbound Mainline Inbound Reversible Outbound Reversible Outbound Mainline In the diagram, the Inbound direction is the operating direction of the Kennedy reversible lanes.

The Travel Time Reports also reflect the direction of travel by listing both directions in the report.

Note that the circled fields will make the direction of travel more obvious. 'N/A' values for the Travel Time and Speed, combined with a gray colored congestion indicator, identify the non-operating direction of traffic flow.

Tollway Data Availability

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority and Illinois Department of Transportation are pleased to present travel time information and congestion information for the Tollway routes through the GCM Travel Site. The Tollway Travel Times are indicated on the map page for Chicago using circular icons filled with black. These travel times are built on Tollway travel links. The IDOT Expressway Travel Times are Downtown Chicago based and are now represented by 'teardrop' icons that point in the direction of travel.