New Illinois Tollway mileposts

[Brandon]

If you've been driving the Veterans Memorial Tollway (formerly North-South Tollway) I-355, you might have noticed that there are a bunch of new mileposts up.  Apparently, the Tollway is re-mileposting the system with them.  They now appear every 1/4 mile instead of every 1/2 mile and include the interstate shield in them.  These are also in Clearview with the exception of the interstate number.  The format is as follows:

SOUTH
{355}
MILE
1
2
1/4

They are white on green as opposed to many similar ones I've seen that are white on blue.  Many of these are replacing older button-copy mileposts in the system.

[SSOWorld]

there are other places where green bgs are used for such a thing (N/S Freeway in Milwaukee for example.)

[rmsandw]

IDOT uses them to here is one on I-55/70 in the StL Metro Area.

I took this about a year ago.

Here is another on along I-55 at Bloomington.

This was about 2 years ago.

[ydkj0022]

Jon Hilkevitch writes about these new mile markers in Monday's trib.  The last graph of the article seems to infer that the ISTHA will start numbering the exits on the tollways starting next year:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-getting-around-19oct19,0,1822413.column

[Brandon]

Some sort of exit numbering system would be good on the tollways.  It would be much easier to impliment than in California since the Tollway uses standard mileposting (as opposed to those strange post miles).  It'll be interesting to see what the scheme looks like.

[agentsteel53]

Some sort of exit numbering system would be good on the tollways.  It would be much easier to impliment than in California since the Tollway uses standard mileposting (as opposed to those strange post miles).  It'll be interesting to see what the scheme looks like.

CA uses standard state-boundary-based mile counting for its exit signs.

the postmiles, they tend to be more for internal reference - they've been around since the 20s.  Before signed state and US markers, even!  They are fairly dumb to reset to zero at the county line, but the fact is, they are almost never updated.  There are postmiles out there for routes that have not existed since 1969.

[SSOWorld]

Some sort of exit numbering system would be good on the tollways.  It would be much easier to impliment than in California since the Tollway uses standard mileposting (as opposed to those strange post miles).  It'll be interesting to see what the scheme looks like.

CA uses standard state-boundary-based mile counting for its exit signs.

the postmiles, they tend to be more for internal reference - they've been around since the 20s.  Before signed state and US markers, even!  They are fairly dumb to reset to zero at the county line, but the fact is, they are almost never updated.  There are postmiles out there for routes that have not existed since 1969.

When I was in CA last month I didn't see mile markers - The only reference to such a thing was the exit numbers - probably a CalTrans thing - don't post it unless it's necessary.

[andy3175]

Some of these mileage-based exit numbers have already started to appear on the Illinois Tollway - In July 2009 I spotted several exit numbers posted along I-88 in north-central Illinois, including the interchange with I-39. Unlike the NW (Addams) Tollway and Tri-State Tollway, the exit numbers on the E-W (Reagan) Tollway were already set to continue I-88's mileage from the free section onto the toll section.

Andy

[Hellfighter]

MDOT only uses those mileposts for the Tri-County area. Everywhere else, it's the same except they're still placed every mile.

[Brandon]

Some of these mileage-based exit numbers have already started to appear on the Illinois Tollway - In July 2009 I spotted several exit numbers posted along I-88 in north-central Illinois, including the interchange with I-39. Unlike the NW (Addams) Tollway and Tri-State Tollway, the exit numbers on the E-W (Reagan) Tollway were already set to continue I-88's mileage from the free section onto the toll section.

Andy

Yep.  The milemarkers were reset in the early 1990s.  They previously were IL-5's milemarkers, and since I-88 was shorter than the former length of IL-5, they were reset.  Highway Explorer has some photgraphs of the new ISTHA exit numbers on I-88: http://www.highwayexplorer.com/il_EndsPage.php?id=3088&section=1

[Brandon]

IDOT uses them to here is one on I-55/70 in the StL Metro Area.

IDOT District 1 has used mileposts with decimals for quite some time, long before there was any push for enhanced mileposts.  They slap a milepost sticker on almost every lightpost on the expressway.  Sometimes it is as few as every third lightpost, but they are there.  The format:

MILE
2
7
6
--
27

Here's a photograph of one on I-80 (Cook County):
http://www.highwayexplorer.com/il_showFull.php?id=3105&section=30801&terminus=Other

[SSOWorld]

According to the new 2010 ISTHA Map, I-90 (Jane Addams/Northwest Tollway) and I-94 (Tri State Tollway) are in the process of having exit tabs added to the system and are revising the mile markers to be inline with the interstate system.
Here are the new exit numbers when they are finished.
I-94 (Jan 2010):
#1A Russell Rd
#1B US 41 South
#3 Ill 173 - Rosecrans Rd
#9 Ill 132 - Grand Ave
#10 Ill 21 - Milwaukee Ave
#11 Ill 120 - Belvidere Rd
#14 Ill 137 - Buckley Rd
#16 Ill 176 - Rockland Rd
#19 Ill 60 - Town Line Rd
#22 Ill 22 - Half Day Rd
#24 Deerfield Rd
#25 Lake Cook Rd
#26 I-294 South/I-94 East split
#28 Ill 43 - Waukegan Rd
#29 US 41 North/Edens Expy merge

The remainder of the Tri-State as I-294 will keep the original mile markers starting at I-94/I-80/Ill 394 junction.

I-90 (late 2010):
#1 US 51 North/Ill 75
#3 Rockton Rd
Tollway begins at MM 3
#9 Ill 173
#12 E Riverside Blvd
#15 Business US 20 - State St
#18 I-39 South/US 51 South/to US 20 (Cherry Valley exit)
#21 Irene Rd (New EXIT for WB off only)
#25 Belvidere-Genoa Rd
#43 US 20 (Marengo exit)
#47 Ill 47
#53 Randall Rd
#55A-B Ill 31
#56 Ill 25
#58 Beverly Rd
#60 Ill 59
#62 Barrington Rd
#66 Roselle Rd
#68A-B I-290/Ill 53
#71 Arlington Hts Rd
#74 Elmhurst Rd
#76 Ill 72 - Lee St
#78 Devon Ave (WB Entrance ramp only)
#78A I-190 O'Hare/I-294 South
#78B I-294 North
#79 I-90 East Kennedy Expy merge

I will let you know when i actually see them posted on each route.

Also, as mentioned above, there is a new Westbound off ramp at Irene Rd in Belvidere that according to the map is open now. This is at 42.23297,-88.90077 according to GPS Visualizer.

source: http://clinched.s2.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?p=4832#4832

The virtual map on the website http://www.illinoistollway.com documents this.