A method, system, and computer program product for solving a congestion problem in an integrated circuit (IC) design are provided in the illustrative embodiments. A congested g-edge is selected from a set of congested g-edges. A set of congesting nets is selected, wherein the set of congesting nets cause congestion in the selected congested g-edges by crossing the selected congested g-edge. A vacancy data structure corresponding to the selected congested g-edge is populated. A subset of the set of the congesting nets is selected. The subset of the set of the congesting nets is rerouted to a candidate g-edge identified in the vacancy data structure.