Illinois freeway history research

[Rick Powell]

Here's some stuff I remember about the planning of I-39 between I-80 and Bloomington-Normal when I was with IDOT.

There were a few options explored with freeway and expressway sections.  The expressway version was almost approved.  The Diamond-Star (Mitsubishi and Chrysler) car plant then came under potential development, and pressure came to make it a full freeway to provide the proposed plant better connectivity with Chrysler's Belvidere plant.  Then-Gov. Thompson made the decision to design it as a full freeway.  The entire stretch probably cost $400 million (in '80's dollars) including the bridge over the IL River at Oglesby.

At the same time, the stretch between Bloomington and Decatur was studied.  District 3 decided to grade separate its US 136 intersection.  District 5 looked at grade separations around Clinton, but ultimately built signalized intersections to save money.  Some of the old timers have later regretted that decision as well as the mess they allowed to occur with all the signalized intersections at Forsythe, north of Decatur.  This "expressway" often is not "express".

[Revive 755]

Looked through a couple early EIS's today for the Elgin O'Hare Expressway.  It appears that originally the EOE was going to curve back to the north and run alongside a slightly shifted US 20 and tie into to US 20's Elgin bypass.  However, later plans had the EOE curving back up to US 20 and having a stoplight infested gap between the EOE and the Elgin bypass, with one of the reasons for leaving the stoplights being a desire to not attract traffic to the EOE from other routes.

[3467]

I recall some stories that ISTHA was worried about it taking traffic from 90.now that ISTHA is going to get the free part I wonder if they will want to connect it to the Elgin part now.

Did I-39 get its designation when it connected to 80? I think it did because the EIS from 80 to 55 wasnt even done yet. 39 has had the most dramatic growth of any road in downstate Illinois because it became and outer truck by pass of Chicago. No expected that in the early 80s.

[Rick Powell]

I recall some stories that ISTHA was worried about it taking traffic from 90.now that ISTHA is going to get the free part I wonder if they will want to connect it to the Elgin part now.

Did I-39 get its designation when it connected to 80? I think it did because the EIS from 80 to 55 wasnt even done yet. 39 has had the most dramatic growth of any road in downstate Illinois because it became and outer truck by pass of Chicago. No expected that in the early 80s.

I remember that I-39 designation in IL was done in 2 parts.  They got the section north of 80 approved before the south section.  Perhaps b/c of the uncertainty of going to an interstate design standard from Oglesby to B-N until 1986 or so.

[Rick Powell]

I recall some stories that ISTHA was worried about it taking traffic from 90.now that ISTHA is going to get the free part I wonder if they will want to connect it to the Elgin part now.

Did I-39 get its designation when it connected to 80? I think it did because the EIS from 80 to 55 wasnt even done yet. 39 has had the most dramatic growth of any road in downstate Illinois because it became and outer truck by pass of Chicago. No expected that in the early 80s.

I remember doing traffic counts on US 51 in the mid 80's and there were about 7,000-8,000 vpd around Lostant.  There are still 1,000 or more vpd on old US 51 (now IL 251) but I-39 is probably in the low 20 thousands, way more than growth in background traffic alone.  It is obvious that I-39 is being used, at least by some, as a Chicagoland bypass.

[mgk920]

I recall some stories that ISTHA was worried about it taking traffic from 90.now that ISTHA is going to get the free part I wonder if they will want to connect it to the Elgin part now.

Did I-39 get its designation when it connected to 80? I think it did because the EIS from 80 to 55 wasnt even done yet. 39 has had the most dramatic growth of any road in downstate Illinois because it became and outer truck by pass of Chicago. No expected that in the early 80s.

I remember doing traffic counts on US 51 in the mid 80's and there were about 7,000-8,000 vpd around Lostant.  There are still 1,000 or more vpd on old US 51 (now IL 251) but I-39 is probably in the low 20 thousands, way more than growth in background traffic alone.  It is obvious that I-39 is being used, at least by some, as a Chicagoland bypass.

By many - I-39 in Illinois is a big-time interstate truck route for traffic both between eastern Wisconsin and points south and southwest and between the northwestern USA and points east and southeast.  It's the midwest version of I-81 in southern Pennsylvania, Maryland and northern Virginia (bypassing the eastern seaboard metro areas).  Further, Union Pacific's 'Global III' intermodal yard was built in Rochelle, IL in part due to the site's the easy access to and from I-39.

Mike

[kharvey10]

it would been even bigger if IDiOT ever upgraded US 51 from B-N south towards Centralia/Mt. Vernon area, as I-57 is a major trucking artery itself (parts of I-57 near Mt. Vernon pushing 40k vpd with about 30% of that truck traffic).

[Rick Powell]

it would been even bigger if IDiOT ever upgraded US 51 from B-N south towards Centralia/Mt. Vernon area, as I-57 is a major trucking artery itself (parts of I-57 near Mt. Vernon pushing 40k vpd with about 30% of that truck traffic).

They have a long range study to do just that.  And 51 is an expressway all the way from Bloomington to north of Pana, although some stretches of it have several stoplights and reduced speed zones.

www.us51eis.com

[Revive 755]

Forgot to mention that I looked through another EIS for the IL 137 freeway around Waukegan.  One of the maps showed a formerly proposed alignment change for US 41 around IL 137 - labeled formerly proposed FAP [can't recall the number].  It would have been from between the intersection of US 41 and MLK Drive and US 41's curve near Atkinson Road running west of the current road.

The EIS also referred to SPUI's as compact diamonds.

[Revive 755]

This article seems to indicate that at one time, I-57 was going to be closer to US 51 in more of southern Illinois:
http://news.yahoo.com/marion-ill-still-celebrating-interstate-50-years-later-183000255.html?bouchon=602,il

[Revive 755]

Turned up an article in ProQuest that indicates I-94 was originally going to use the US 41 corridor until the Tri-State Tollway alignment was decided to be close to the US 41 corridor; the shift in interstate designation occured in 1952.  The US 41 freeway was going to be built with only a 50% federal match.  Source article is "Plan Skokie Road Expressway A 1950 Project Comes to Life 12 Yrs. Later" Chicago Tribune July 8, 1962

EDIT Other finds:

* Another article indicates that the IL 83 corridor was strongly consider for the Tri-State; the article also mentions plans for the Tri-State to hook up with a Wisconsin Turnpike.  Source article is "Sidetracks Skokie Highway Plans Toll route is cited as alternative" Chicago Tribune November 23, 1953.

* US 41 was also apparently shifted onto the Edens between the Skokie Road interchange (Exit 34A) and Touhy Avenue interchange (Exit 39).  "US 41 Marked On Edens Hwy.; Aid To Trucks" Chicago Tribune August 30, 1953.

* There's a 1944 article that has two decent maps of Chicago highway plans, with the Dan Ryan along Union Street from Archer Avenue to maybe 51st Street, then curving west to follow Halstead Street to 119th Street.  The Kennedy would be along Clybourn Avenue from Congress Street to Western Avenue where it then follows the C&NW railroad to Cicero Avenue.  The Kennedy and Dan Ryan routes tie into the Congress Street route via a flipped over "h" shape with the western route being the longer.  A bypass of the loop from today's I-55 is shown along California Avenue.  East-West radial routes are shown along Higgins Road, Butterfield Road, and North Avenue, with the North Avenue route splitting west of St. Charles.  Today's I-57 is shown stopping at a belt route that resembles I-294, with today's IL 394 shown extending out of the region.  The main I-294 analogue is shown running through Elmhurst, the east side of Arlington Heights, and the east side of Libertyville before connecting with the Edens around the curve on US 41 in what I think is the area of Delany Road in Gurnee.  There's a diagonal route running west from the Edens perhaps around IL 22 west to Fox Lake and beyond.   A sort of inner loop is shown branching off the outer loop, passing east of Willow Springs, briefly merging with the I-55ish corridor, before continuing north, passing through the east side of Des Plaines and ending at the Fox Lake diagonal.  An east-west route is shown near the US 30 corridor that dies out near today's I-57.  Interestingly, the larger map does not have the North Avenue and IL 394ish corridors connect within the city limits to any other expressways.  Source article is "Edens Parkway Is A Key Route In Traffic Plans."  Chicago Tribune July 30, 1944.

* A map with an article has a giant triangle (maybe three miles to a side) shown for the interchange between the Tri-State and Edens Spur routes.  "Suburbs Wait Shift In Toll Road Routing"   Chicago Tribune October 10, 1954

* Apparently what evolved into I-90 was to follow the unbuilt Stony Island/Lake Shore drive route between the Skyway and the loop.  The article and maps seem to have placeholder numbers for designating the interstates with the various IL routes having numbers between 1 and 14.  "Illinois Using 150 Million In Road Aid In '57"  Chicago Tribune June 21, 1957.

* Chicago canceled the Stony Island Expressway in late 1959:  "City Changes Plans; Expressway Dropped" Chicago Tribune, December 13,1959

[Revive 755]

Map from one of the EIS's for the US 50 supplemental freeway:


I didn't take the time to read all the way through the EIS to see if a reason was given for going north of Salem.

A different EIS for what is now I-72 west a Springfield indicated that there was plans for a rest area (I think for a pair, not just a shared facility for both directions) near the Illinois River crossing, but west of the river.

And now for your pleasure a map of a few alternatives for what evolved into I-39.  Not the best scan, but I'll try to get a better one someday.


Corridor C's are generally near US 51.  Corridor D's start off near US 51 but swing over to parallel IL 23 from Streator to DeKalb before heading north to I-90 near Belvidere.  Corridor E's generally stay closer to IL 23.

[Revive 755]

This one comes from 1954 study for a turnpike system for IL:


The dashed potential toll road near US 66 from Mt. Olive to East St. Louis was supposedly due to that section of US 66 being two lanes and having operational problems.

[3467]

This is really strange because the IDOT annual reports statred showing th epropoed interstates on almost exactly their same corridors ex for 64 which was on US 50 .
It howver does explain an old story that I thought was just imagination. Kewanee claims that I-74 was planned to go by them and not Galesburg...well here it is.
The zig zag north south route was on the first outline map of the SFS.
There was a Feas Study that did show 72 North of Jacksonville

[Revive 755]

I'm not sure whether this is a somewhat long-lived mappo from the past or an indication of plans that did not come to fruition, but the Iowa state map insert for Davenport have today's IL 92 freeway from I-280 to US 67 shown as I-199 from 1962 up to 1967, then for 1967 and 1968 this freeway is shown with no number.  The section south of I-280 is shown as IL 199 in the 1969 map.

http://www.iowadot.gov/maps//msp/historical/pdf/1962_back.pdf

http://www.iowadot.gov/maps//msp/historical/pdf/1965_back.pdf

http://www.iowadot.gov/maps//msp/historical/pdf/1969_back.pdf

[Alex]

I'm not sure whether this is a somewhat long-lived mappo from the past or an indication of plans that did not come to fruition, but the Iowa state map insert for Davenport have today's IL 92 freeway from I-280 to US 67 shown as I-199 from 1962 up to 1967, then for 1967 and 1968 this freeway is shown with no number.  The section south of I-280 is shown as IL 199 in the 1969 map.

That mappo explains why several gas station maps I have from that era show I-199 on their Quad Cities inset. They must have grafted their insets wholly on the official highway map. The Iowa cartographers likely overlooked it for years since it was on the Illinois side of the map (something I noted in my days working for a map company was that cartographers often overlooked areas outside the general scope of the map they were working on). For what its worth, I have an Illinois General Highway map from that era that shows 199 north of I-280:

[iowahighways]

I'm not sure whether this is a somewhat long-lived mappo from the past or an indication of plans that did not come to fruition, but the Iowa state map insert for Davenport have today's IL 92 freeway from I-280 to US 67 shown as I-199 from 1962 up to 1967, then for 1967 and 1968 this freeway is shown with no number.  The section south of I-280 is shown as IL 199 in the 1969 map.

http://www.iowadot.gov/maps//msp/historical/pdf/1962_back.pdf

http://www.iowadot.gov/maps//msp/historical/pdf/1965_back.pdf

http://www.iowadot.gov/maps//msp/historical/pdf/1969_back.pdf

Has to be a mapo. The Centennial Expressway in Rock Island was originally IL 199, then became IL 92 when some highways in the Quad Cities area were renumbered around the end of 1975 when the last segment of I-74 opened through Moline. (At the same time, US 150 was truncated to its present north end and IL 92 was rerouted to go through the downtowns of Rock Island and Moline.)

My guess is that whoever did the cartography for the Iowa Highway Commission got confused.

[Revive 755]

^ I was just wondering if there had been discussion of seeking an interstate designation for the Centennial Expressway and the map maker got confused because of such discussion.

[Alps]

I'm not sure whether this is a somewhat long-lived mappo from the past or an indication of plans that did not come to fruition, but the Iowa state map insert for Davenport have today's IL 92 freeway from I-280 to US 67 shown as I-199 from 1962 up to 1967, then for 1967 and 1968 this freeway is shown with no number.

I-199? You mean this

[NE2]

I-199? You mean this

Nah, the Google downgrade to Ebensburg.

[mrose]

I recall some stories that ISTHA was worried about it taking traffic from 90.now that ISTHA is going to get the free part I wonder if they will want to connect it to the Elgin part now.

Did I-39 get its designation when it connected to 80? I think it did because the EIS from 80 to 55 wasnt even done yet. 39 has had the most dramatic growth of any road in downstate Illinois because it became and outer truck by pass of Chicago. No expected that in the early 80s.

I remember doing traffic counts on US 51 in the mid 80's and there were about 7,000-8,000 vpd around Lostant.  There are still 1,000 or more vpd on old US 51 (now IL 251) but I-39 is probably in the low 20 thousands, way more than growth in background traffic alone.  It is obvious that I-39 is being used, at least by some, as a Chicagoland bypass.

By many - I-39 in Illinois is a big-time interstate truck route for traffic both between eastern Wisconsin and points south and southwest and between the northwestern USA and points east and southeast.  It's the midwest version of I-81 in southern Pennsylvania, Maryland and northern Virginia (bypassing the eastern seaboard metro areas).  Further, Union Pacific's 'Global III' intermodal yard was built in Rochelle, IL in part due to the site's the easy access to and from I-39.

Mike

Using I-39 and I-74 to get from southern WI to Indianapolis was a very quick and easy alternative to the Chicago mess. Did it a bunch of times on trips to the southeastern US.

[Revive 755]

More from the ProQuest archive for the Chicago Tribune:

* Apparently the extension of the IL 53 corridor shown in one of the Chicago transportation plans from the IL 120 corridor to the Wisconsin border made it into the public hearing phase.  The article has a map that show two main corridors, one east of IL 83, one west of IL 83 that runs near IL 59 from IL 132 to Grass Lake Road.  The western corridor then has either a western or eastern bypass option of Antioch ("Second Lake-Will Freeway Hearing Planned Tonight" 1/22/1970)

* The same article discusses the US 41 freeway in the Gurnee/Waukegan area and has a map showing three general corridors under consideration:  Along US 41 to a point south of IL 173, then northeasterly to a point west of IL 131 on the Wisconsin border; between Delany Road and the UP Railroad; and between the UP Railroad and IL 131.

* It appears that the IL 53 freeway was at one time planned to stay closer to Rohwling Road, have a brief east-west section along Baldwin Road to about Hicks Road, then angle northeasterly to end at IL 83 just east of the intersection with today's IL 53.  A map shows the freeway going under US 14 and crossing IL 68 immediately east of the intersection with US 12. ("Two Suburbs Debate Route For Highway:  Limited Access Road Sought" 9/4/1958

* A later alignment for the IL 53 freeway followed the as built route except for the section north of IL 68, which an a map shows running northeasterly to a terminus with IL 83 maybe at near the Arlington Heights Road intersection.  Apparently there was orginally to be a full interchange at US 12 instead of at IL 68.  The article also states that the extension of the freeway to Madison was originally going to be an interstate, but the interstate route was shifted to use the Northwest Tollway. ("Decide Route of Highway As An Expressway Link:  Six Miles of IL 53 to Be Relocated" 6/22/1961)

* A later articles seems to indicate that shifting I-90 from the NW Tollway to the new IL 53 freeway corridor/freeway to Madison corridor may have still been intended. ("New 53 Route Irks Neighbors" 7/20/1961)

* Even after the demise of the Lake Shore Drive route for I-494, there seems to have been some interest in extended the Ohio Street Feeder eastward. ("N. Michigan Av. Group Details Two-Street Expressway Plan" 11/5/1965)

* There were apparently proposals for the Amstutz Expressway to start at the interchange of I-94 with IL 176 ("Lake Bluff Opposes Expressway Proposal" 11/12/1970)

* The Bureau of Public Roads was apparently not thrilled with the section of I-80 that uses the Tri-State Tollway ("1st Expressway Across Illinois Runs Into Snag: U. S. Turns Down Proposal by Toll Agency" 3/17/1963)

[Revive 755]

Two maps from an EIS for the western section of FAP 409, the supplemental freeway for the US 50 corridor.  The first is at the west end of the facility.  The wooded area includes the wetlands that would nowadays require the facility to intersection I-64 near IL 4.


One showing two alternate routes in the Caryle area:

[SEWIGuy]

I recall some stories that ISTHA was worried about it taking traffic from 90.now that ISTHA is going to get the free part I wonder if they will want to connect it to the Elgin part now.

Did I-39 get its designation when it connected to 80? I think it did because the EIS from 80 to 55 wasnt even done yet. 39 has had the most dramatic growth of any road in downstate Illinois because it became and outer truck by pass of Chicago. No expected that in the early 80s.

I remember doing traffic counts on US 51 in the mid 80's and there were about 7,000-8,000 vpd around Lostant.  There are still 1,000 or more vpd on old US 51 (now IL 251) but I-39 is probably in the low 20 thousands, way more than growth in background traffic alone.  It is obvious that I-39 is being used, at least by some, as a Chicagoland bypass.

I have regularly taken that route for 20+ years, and the amount of traffic that uses it has steadily grown during that time.  Back when it first opened, you could go miles without seeing another car.

And the US-51 section between Bloomington and Decatur is maddening to drive due to the stop lights.

[Brandon]

I recall some stories that ISTHA was worried about it taking traffic from 90.now that ISTHA is going to get the free part I wonder if they will want to connect it to the Elgin part now.

Did I-39 get its designation when it connected to 80? I think it did because the EIS from 80 to 55 wasnt even done yet. 39 has had the most dramatic growth of any road in downstate Illinois because it became and outer truck by pass of Chicago. No expected that in the early 80s.

I remember doing traffic counts on US 51 in the mid 80's and there were about 7,000-8,000 vpd around Lostant.  There are still 1,000 or more vpd on old US 51 (now IL 251) but I-39 is probably in the low 20 thousands, way more than growth in background traffic alone.  It is obvious that I-39 is being used, at least by some, as a Chicagoland bypass.

I have regularly taken that route for 20+ years, and the amount of traffic that uses it has steadily grown during that time.  Back when it first opened, you could go miles without seeing another car.

And the US-51 section between Bloomington and Decatur is maddening to drive due to the stop lights.

I remember those days, not long after I-39, then US-51 freeway, opened.  The East-West Tollway was quiet west of Aurora, even more dead west of DeKalb, and I-39 between there and Rockford was wide open.  We used to cut over to I-88 at IL-47 from Bolingbrook when I was going to college up in Houghton, Michigan in the late 1990s and take I-39 from there north to Wisconsin.  It was a pleasant drive with a lot fewer vehicles than I-355 and I-90.