A year ago, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the expressway and tollway signs warning of speed-enforcement cameras in work zones in the Chicago area were empty threats.
There still aren’t any cameras on the Kennedy Expressway, the area’s biggest construction headache, or elsewhere around Chicago.
But some unfortunate drivers discovered the threat of being caught on camera speeding was briefly a real one on Interstate 55 in Will County. With the Illinois State Police using them from a well-marked van, the cameras “were deployed a total of eight days in Will County” in May on the expressway, according to Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the agency.
During that time, 53 speeding tickets were issued, Arnold says.
That appears to be the only use of speed cameras in construction zones this year in the six-county Chicago region.
But the “photo enforcement” signs still carry that empty threat in spots on the Kennedy, the Edens Expressway, Illinois tollways and some state roads in the suburbs.
The Illinois Department of Transportation — the agency overseen by Gov. JB Pritzker that’s responsible for the state’s highway system — says it’s required to place the warning signs in work zones if there’s a possibility cameras will be used to snare speeders in reduced-speed construction zones.
IDOT says there’s so much traffic congestion in Chicago and close-in suburbs that speeders generally aren’t as much of a problem in work zones there as they are farther away from the city, so that’s where the camera-enforcement efforts are focused.
“No decisions have been made regarding future deployments in the Chicago area,” an agency spokesperson says.
The May use of speed cameras in Will County was along a stretch of I-55 that’s part of a construction project that involves bridge replacements and other work.
They also have used elsewhere, including these counties: Adams, Champaign, Cumberland, Franklin, Jefferson, Knox, Logan, Morgan, Peoria, Sangamon and Tazewell. Between June 20, 2024, and June 30, 2025, the Illinois State Police “deployed photo enforcement vans on 329 occasions in 12 counties,” Arnold says.
Speed cameras aren’t being used at all in work zones on tollways, according to the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, which says: “At this time, there are no photo-enforcement vans in tollway work zones.” Nor, a tollway spokesperson says, have they been used recently: “None last year or now.”
When the state police do camera speed enforcement, officials say they park their “extremely conspicuous” vans in work zones, and the vans have exterior speed displays for drivers to see, with tickets later sent by mail.
