Chicago commuters have seen plenty of bad days on the Kennedy Expressway. Then came the scrap metal.
Around 3:30 p.m., a semi-truck collided with two passenger vehicles near West Grand Avenue on the inbound Kennedy, sending its load of scrap metal skidding across the roadway. A piece of it wedged itself between the bridge and the road near Hubbard’s Cave, while the two passenger vehicles took direct hits from the debris. Two people were transported to area hospitals, though it wasn’t immediately clear whether the metal actually penetrated the vehicles or simply caused drivers to lose control.
The cleanup wasn’t a quick sweep-and-go. IDOT had to inspect the overpass to confirm the structure hadn’t been compromised before crews could begin clearing the mess. Inspectors found some scraping, but no structural damage to the bridge. Cold comfort if you were sitting in a mile-long backup watching the clock.
Three inbound lanes were blocked from around 3:40 p.m. until 8 p.m. — a stretch of more than four hours that turned what should have been a routine Wednesday commute into a white-knuckle waiting game. At one point, traffic was crawling at 12 miles per hour, with delays stretching back to O’Hare — 90 minutes of fun for anyone trying to get home from a flight.
A Piece of Metal That Picked the Worst Possible Spot
Hubbard’s Cave, the narrow tunnel section where the Kennedy dips under downtown Chicago, is already one of the most congested bottlenecks in the city under normal conditions. Add a bridge inspection, debris on the pavement, and a chunk of scrap wedged into the infrastructure overhead, and you’ve got a recipe for gridlock that ripples for miles.
Exits near the Loop became so backed up that drivers who tried to bail early found themselves stuck on the ramps instead.
The Cargo Problem Nobody Talks About
Unsecured or improperly loaded cargo is one of those highway hazards that doesn’t get enough attention until something exactly like this happens. A semi hauling scrap metal — sheet metal, beams, industrial offcuts — carries material that can slice, fly, and embed itself into concrete if a load shifts during a crash.
The two passenger vehicles in this incident found that out firsthand.
Chicago Patience, Tested Again
Drivers interviewed near the scene had the kind of resigned, dark-humor calm that comes from years of Kennedy commuting. One woman who had been sitting in traffic for nearly an hour summed it up simply: her drive home had taken longer than it should. Hard to argue with that math.
As one reporter put it on the scene, in Chicago, you pack patience. Always.