I-94 splits off toward Chicago while I-80/I-294 heads west as an eight-lane tollway and crosses above a railroad track and Thorn Creek in Thornton.

The highway then enters East Hazel Crest and has a cloverleaf interchange with IL 1 (Halsted Street) and widens to 10 lanes.

After crossing under 171st Street, I-80 splits off and heads toward Des Moines, Iowa, and I-294 narrows to eight lanes in Hazel Crest.

It crosses over South Claire Boulevard, Pulaski Road, the Midlothian Turnpike, 135th Street, and the Calumet River.

I-294 then crosses the Canadian National Railway Joliet Subdivision, the Illinois and Michigan Canal, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the Des Plaines River, the BNSF Railway Chillicothe Subdivision, Santa Fe Drive, and an access road on the Mile-Long Bridge.

[4] I-294 enters Des Plaines, passing by the Touhy Avenue toll plaza (for northbound lanes), and crosses over River Road.

I-294 crosses the Des Plaines River and the Union Pacific Northwest Line, and enters Park Ridge.

It enters Deerfield and terminates at a partial interchange with I-94 just south of Lake-Cook Road, the county line, to which I-294 has full access.

[4] The portion of the Borman Expressway that was completed from Gary westward and the Kingery Expressway were originally designated as I-80, I-90, and I-294 from shortly after the Interstate Highway program was enacted until about 1965 when the connection between the Borman and the Indiana Toll Road was completed, and I-90 was swapped with I-94 west of that junction (and east of where those routes share the same road in Chicago), cutting back I-294 to its current south terminus (eliminating the Indiana part of I-294).

As a result, the vast majority of the interchanges are partial or were configured to have entrance ramps feeding the toll plazas.

[9][10][6] Between 2006 and 2009, the southern and northern portions of I-294 (IL-394 to 95th Street and I-90 to Lake Cook Road respectively) were fully reconstructed and expanded, bringing the entire highway up to eight lanes.

[11][12] The central portion of I-294 between Balmoral Avenue and 95th Street is currently being reconstructed and widened to a five/six-lane cross-section, with the inside shoulder being a flex lane that can be used during emergencies or heavy congestion.