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Key Wacker Drive Intersection Reopening Friday

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Good news for motorists -- a major West Loop intersection is reopening Friday to traffic for the first time since early January.

The Chicago Deptartment of Transportation announced that two lanes of Randolph Street, at Wacker Drive, will reopen by mid-afternoon.

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The Wacker/Randolph and Wacker/Washington intersections closed Jan. 3, kicking off the $300 million reconstruction of the north-south portion of Wacker, which is being rebuilt for the first time in more than 50 years.

The crumbling, two-deck roadway is being torn out a block at a time and is being replaced by a totally new roadway.

Concrete is still being poured at Washington/Wacker, which is expected to be reopened by mid-summer. The intersections at Madison and Monroe Streets will then close, with reconstruction expected to be complete by late fall.

The reconstruction is a three-year effort. The intersections at Adams, Jackson and Van Buren Streets are slated to be rebuilt in 2012.

The interchange between Wacker Drive and the Eisenhower Expressway will be the final portion rebuilt as part of the project.

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