An idea emerged several years ago to “cap the Kennedy,” or build a landscaped deck over portions of the Kennedy Expressway as it courses through downtown Chicago. The concept is still out there but with no funding source, grassroots advocacy or engineering studies to bolster it.
That could change if the federal government opens the taps for infrastructure money. It turns out, though, that a similar idea in the region might have a spot in line ahead of the Kennedy project. It comes from the village of Oak Park, which over some 20 years has discussed and analyzed plans for landscaped decks over parts of Interstate 290, the Eisenhower Expressway. Residents have voiced support for the plan, but they haven’t seen hard numbers about their share of the cost.
