The Des Plaines Oasis overlooking the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway, one of the glass-walled icons of the Illinois Tollway system, will be torn down next year to make way for the road's widening, officials announced Thursday.
Opened in 1959 and long a stopping point for fast food and quick naps, the bridgelike pavilion will close in April to allow for the addition of a fourth lane in each direction under the Tollway's $2.2 billion reconstruction of Interstate 90 from O'Hare International Airport to Elgin.
The oasis is also smack-dab where a planned new tollway skirting the western edge of O'Hare will someday intersect with I-90.
The oasis "is an important part of our history, but it's important to do the (rebuilding) job right," Tollway Executive Director Kristi Lafleur said.
Motorists in desperate need of gas, caffeine or a Slurpee need not despair, however. The gas stations and convenience stores operated by 7-Eleven on either side of the tollway will remain open, officials said.
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