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RicB's avatar
RicB
Explorer
Jun 26, 2017

Southwest Michigan to Joliet, Illinois

I'm hearing horror stories about I-94 westbound towards Chicago due to construction. I need to go to Joliet, IL from southwest MI. Is there an alternate I should consider?
  • Not really, you could go south to RT 30 but that would be stoplite city. I use to take RT 30 fron I394 to I65 40 years ago and it was getting bad then. About 15 years ago I was on a construction job South of 30 on 41 and tried to take 30 westbound one time that was a no go.
  • Avoid rush hour times. Early morning and early evening. Rest of the time it's not terrible. I drive it every day
  • No good way around it. We drive it quite a bit, but haven't in the past two months. I just put in New Buffalo to Joliet in Google Maps with traffic, and it says 86 miles, 1 hr 36 minutes. So that is not bad at all. Maybe sitting in traffic for what, 10-15 minutes. Not fun, but you can see why you can't be taking stoplight infested state routes and expect to do any better.

    If you were going a bit farther south than Joliet, then maybe. But in my experience, not even then. It's more for peace and tranquility than time savings. To Joliet, no way, just take the interstate.