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Travel

Thursday, December 20, 2012

First Storm of Season Brings Less Snow Than Predicted

Old Man Winter arrived Thursday, just in time for Christmas travel, but didn't dump as much snow on the Chicago area as predicted.

Friday at 9:10 a.m. Because temperatures, for the most part, stayed above freezing during the storm last night, snow accumulation in the western suburbs was far less than the 2 to 6 inches that was predicted.  Read more about the not-so-heavy snowfall here on the Chicago Tribune. Thursday at 6:17 p.m. Just stepped in from outside, and the snow is falling thick and fast.  In the interest of public safety, the Hinsdale Police Department posted a link to to a helpful webpage earlier today on its Facebook page:  "As the first winter storm approaches, remember to drive carefully and review your preparedness plans. Visit this website for some suggestions: www.ProtectDuPage.org." According to the Mapquest traffic map above, there's another …

Susan Trefil

1:34 pm on Friday, December 21, 2012

What snow? How hard can it be to correctly predict what the weather will be in four hours.   more ›

Friday, December 23, 2011

1.6 Million Cars Expected on the Roads Today

Friday is expected to be the heaviest travel day over the holiday. To accommodate the increased volume, the tollway has announced it will suspend construction lane closures.

The Illinois Tollway expects 15.4 million cars to use the tollway system during the Christmas and New Year's holidays. Between Friday, Dec. 23, and Tuesday, Jan. 3, a three percent increase is projected over the same period in 2010.   The heaviest travel is anticipated on Friday, Dec. 23, when the tollway expects 1.6 million vehicles to be on the road. On an average day, about 1.4 million vehicles use the tollway. To accommodate increased holiday travel, the tollway will suspend all temporary maintenance and construction lane closures from noon on Friday, Dec. 23, until 9 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 26, and from noon on Friday, Dec. 30, until 9 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 2. Some maintenance and construction may continue behind barriers to keep work on …

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