graffiti

(Chicago) Graffiti on a key inbound Kennedy Expressway sign was addressed in the quickest way possible by removing it during the morning rush hour about two hours after being notified of its existence, state transportation officials said Friday amid a flurry of complaints from commuters.

The closure of two lanes — and briefly three lanes — of traffic to remove the graffiti between 6 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Friday caused a traffic nightmare on the Kennedy, the Sun-Times is reporting.

The morning rush on one of Chicago’s busiest expressways was reduced to a crawl, with WBBM-Radio at one point reporting a nearly two-hour trip from O’Hare to downtown. Illinois Department of Transportation officials gave a time of 138 minutes for the trip, instead of the normal 60 minutes.

IDOT spokesman Guy Tridgell said the graffiti that stretched over three lanes of traffic was reported to IDOT at 4 a.m. Friday.

Afterwards, Tridgell said, “We assessed the situation and had a crew responding to remove [it] at about 6 a.m.”

IDOT’s district operations and maintenance staff decided to remove the graffiti immediately, given that it was “obscuring an important sign in an area that people rely on as they are approaching downtown,” Tridgell said.

He did not immediately know of IDOT Director Erica Borggen signed off on the idea.

However, Tridgell said, the graffiti was in a critical spot at the Odgen Avenue overpass where traffic begins to “split in many directions.”

Asked why a temporary sign could not have been used until the morning rush ended, Tridgell said: “We took the quickest course of action, which was to remove the graffiti as quickly as possible. It was obscuring an important sign on the interstate system that people rely on.”

“We do understand this caused an inconvenience and apologize for that. This was a situation we did not create but for safety reasons, we had to address it as quickly as possible.”

–Sun-Times