CHICAGO (WBBM) -  The long-awaited I-355 Tollway extension becomes a reality on Monday when traffic opens on the 12-and-a-half mile stretch of new road. 

WBBM's Bernie Tafoya reports.

I-355 will be given a new name as well.  It’ll be the Veterans Memorial Tollway.

Tollway Authority Executive Director Brian McPartlin believes the new extension will save motorists 20% of their current travel time between I-80 and the Stevenson Expressway.

McPartlin also believes the extension will benefit southwest suburbanites who’ve had to deal with gridlock trying to get to the O’Hare area.

McPartlin also thinks congestion will ease on Lemont Road which has taken the brunt of traffic that will eventually wind up on the extension.

Motorists aren’t the only ones excited about the tollway extension’s opening.

A year-and-a-half ago, Joong Choi opened All Cleaners in Lockport a half mile from the 159th Street tollway interchange. He says the tollway is “the reason I moved here”.  He calls the extension’s opening, “exciting”.

Justin Mazac owns a Sprint store in the same strip mall and says he moved to the current location for the same reason as Choi.  Mazac says business in the past couple of years has “been double and it’s going beyond that point now”.