Interstate 55 in Illinois

 

This article is about the section of Interstate 55 in Illinois. For the entire length of the highway, see Interstate 55.

Interstate 55
Stevenson Expressway
Route information
Maintained by IDOT
Length:	293.08 mi (471.67 km)
Major junctions
South end:	I-55 / I-64 / I-70 / US 40 in East St. Louis
	I-64 / IL 3 in East St. Louis I-255 in Collinsville I-70 / I-270 in Troy I-72 / US 36 in Springfield I-155 near Lincoln I-74 in Bloomington I-39 / US 51 in Normal I-80 in Joliet I-355 in Bolingbrook I-294 in Indian Head Park I-90 / I-94 in Chicago
North end:	US 41 in Chicago
Highway system
Interstate Highway System Main • Auxiliary • Business Illinois state highway system Illinois Tollway system ← IL 54 IL 56 →

In the U.S. state of Illinois, Interstate 55 is a major north–south Interstate Highway that connects the St. Louis, Missouri and Chicago metropolitan areas. It runs from the Poplar Street Bridge in East St. Louis to U.S. Route 41 (Lake Shore Drive) near downtown Chicago. This is a distance of 294.38 miles (473.75 km).

Route description

Interstate 55 within Illinois carries heavy traffic, with an average of more than 20,000 vehicles per day for most of its length. Significant portions of Interstate 55 contain six lanes (3 lanes in each direction) and are heavily used by commuters. I-55 in Illinois begins in East Saint Louis on the Poplar Street Bridge over the Mississippi River at the Missouri-Illinois state line. and runs southwest to northeast through the state, ending in Chicago at US Route 41 Lake Shore Drive. Along the way, it goes through four metropolitan areas in the state: the Illinois portion of the St. Louis metropolitan area, the Springfield metropolitan area, the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area, and the southwestern suburbs of the Chicago metropolitan area (also known as Chicagoland).

I-55 enters Chicago as the Stevenson Expressway, and provides easy access to downtown Chicago via the I-90/I-94 (Dan Ryan Expressway) interchange, and via US 41 Lake Shore Drive at the northern terminus of I-55.

History

Interstate 55 in Illinois is the fourth road to connect St. Louis and Chicago. The first was the Pontiac Trail in 1915. This was largely improved and paved as the new Illinois Route 4 by 1924. In 1926, IL 4 was designated as the route of the new US Route 66, and a new section of US 66 was built to bypass slower sections of IL 4 south of Springfield by 1930. Through the 1950s US 66 was continually widened, straightened, and improved to handle its growing traffic, until its entire length was four lanes wide by 1957.

The roots of Interstate 55 could be traced back to the need of a national highway system. President Dwight D. Eisenhower saw the need of a national network of highways that would help with the mobilization of the army. He had been impressed with the autobahn he saw in Germany during World War II. In 1956 he signed the Federal Aid Highway Act into existence. Although the act provided for a highway replacing Route 66, it was spared destruction for a while because of it being more modern than other routes at the time. Illinois would build its first new Interstate highways on other routes such as Interstate 80, Interstate 57, and Interstate 70, before turning its attention once again to the St. Louis to Chicago route.

However during the 1970s, Route 66 was finally replaced by Interstate 55 as the fourth St. Louis to Chicago highway, serving most of the same communities along the way as the original Pontiac Trail. It was built in sections across Illinois, often on the original Route 66 roadbed. A common construction tactic where Route 66 was already four lanes wide, was to build new southbound lanes for I-55 west of the original road, then rebuild the original southbound lanes of US 66 to be the new northbound lanes for I-55, leaving the original northbound lanes of old US 66 as a two-way service road. One can find many signs posted for Historic Route 66, especially where it deviates from I-55.

The earliest stretch of I-55 was a portion of US 66 which had already been built as a freeway between Gardner and Welco Corners, and which was added to the Interstate system by simply erecting new signs in 1960. Later portions of the highway were built in the 1960s between East St. Louis and Hamel, as bypasses of Springfield and Bloomington-Normal, and as the Stevenson Expressway into Downtown Chicago. The rest of the road was completed in the 1970s.

Construction efforts

Because of the heavy traffic on Interstate 55 mentioned above, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) must spend millions per year maintaining the roadway and adding lanes to increase the capacity of the highway. In addition, several bridges are slated for construction or revitalization, including plans for a new $560 million Interstate 70 bridge over the Mississippi river which will relieve congestion on I-55's Poplar Street Bridge.

Recent Upgrades

In northeastern Illinois near Joliet, a widening project that expanded I-55 from two to three lanes in each direction between I-80 (exit 250) and Weber Road (exit 263) was recently completed. Preliminary bridge work for this project was completed in 2007, and mainline work was completed on October 29, 2008.

Exit list

County	Location	Mile	#	Destinations	Notes
St. Clair	East St. Louis	Poplar Street Bridge over the Mississippi River (Missouri–Illinois state line)
			1	IL 3 south / Great River Road south – Cahokia	South end of IL 3/GRR overlap
				13th Street, Tudor Avenue
				Fourth Street – East St. Louis Business District	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
			2A	Third Street – Eads Bridge	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
			2BC	Martin Luther King Bridge – Downtown St. Louis	Southbound exit and northbound entrance; left exit is signed as exit 2B and right exit as 2C
			2	I-64 east / IL 3 north (St. Clair Avenue) – Louisville	North end of I-64/IL 3 overlap
			3	Exchange Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
			4	IL 203 / Collinsville Road – Fairmont City, Granite City	Signed as exits 4A (south) and 4B (north) southbound
Madison	Fairmont City		6	IL 111 / Great River Road north – Wood River, Washington Park	North end of GRR overlap
	Collinsville		9	Black Lane	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
			10	I-255 to I-270 – Memphis
			11	IL 157 – Collinsville, Edwardsville
	Maryville		15	IL 159 – Collinsville, Maryville	Signed as exits 15A (south) and 15B (north)
			17	US 40 east – St. Jacob, Highland	North end of US 40 overlap
	Troy		18	IL 162 – Troy
			20A	I-70 east – Indianapolis	North end of I-70 overlap
			20B	I-270 west – Kansas City
			23	IL 143 – Edwardsville, Marine
	Rest area available both directions between exit 23 and 30; full handicap facilities, phone, picnic tables, trash cans, vending, pet area
	Hamel		30	IL 140 – Alton, Greenville
			33	IL 4 – Staunton, Lebanon
	Livingston		37	Livingston, New Douglas
Macoupin			41	Staunton
	White City		44	IL 138 – Mount Olive, Benld
Montgomery	Litchfield		52	IL 16 – Gillespie, Litchfield
			60	IL 108 – Carlinville
	Rest area available both directions between exits 60 and 63; full handicap facilities, phone, picnic tables, trash cans, vending, pet area
			63	IL 48 / IL 127 – Raymond, Taylorville, Hillsboro
	Farmersville		72	Farmersville, Girard
Sangamon	Divernon		80	Divernon
			82	IL 104 – Pawnee, Auburn
			83	Glenarm
	Springfield		88	East Lake Drive – Chatham
			90	Toronto Road
			92A	I-55 Bus. north (6th Street)
			92B	I-72 west / US 36 west – Jacksonville	South end of I-72/US 36 overlap
			94	Stevenson Drive, East Lake Drive
			96	IL 29 (South Grand Avenue) – Taylorville	Signed as exits 96A (south) and 96B (north)
			98A	I-72 east / US 36 east – Decatur	North end of I-72/US 36 overlap
			98B	IL 97 west (Clear Lake Avenue)
			100	IL 54 east (Sangamon Avenue) – Clinton	Signed as exits 100A (east) and 100B (west)
		Southbound Rest Area between exits 105 and 100; full handicap facilities, phone, picnic tables, trash cans, vending, pet area
		Northbound Rest Area between exits 100 and 105; full handicap facilities, phone, picnic tables, trash cans, vending, pet area
			105	Sherman	I-55 Bus. south – Springfield, Sherman
	Williamsville		109	Williamsville (IL 123)
Logan	Elkhart		115	Elkhart
			119	Broadwell
			123	I-55 Bus. north – Lincoln
	Lincoln		126	IL 10 / IL 121 – Lincoln, Mason City
			127	I-155 north – Peoria, Hartsburg
			133	I-55 Bus. south – Lincoln, Lawndale
			140	Atlanta, Lawndale
McLean			145	US 136 – McLean, Heyworth
	Rest area available both directions; full handicap facilities, phone, picnic tables, trash cans, vending, pet area
			154	Shirley
			157A	I-74 east / US 51 south – Indianapolis, Decatur	South end of I-74/US 51 overlap
	Bloomington		157B	I-55 Bus. north (Veterans Parkway)	Signed as exit 134B (north) southbound
			160	US 150 / IL 9 (Market Street) – Pekin
			163	I-74 west – Peoria	North end of I-74 overlap
			164	I-39 north / US 51 north – Rockford	North end of US 51 overlap
	Normal		165	US 51 Bus. – Bloomington-Normal	Signed as exits 165A (south) and 165B (north) northbound
			167	I-55 Bus. south (Veterans Parkway) – Central Illinois Regional Airport
			171	Towanda
	Lexington		178	Lexington
	Chenoa		187	US 24 – El Paso, Chenoa
Livingston	Pontiac		Rest area available both directions between exits 187 and 197; full handicap facilities, phone, picnic tables, trash cans, vending, pet area
			197	IL 116 – Flanagan, Pontiac
			201	IL 23 – Pontiac, Streator
			209	Odell
			217	IL 17 – Streator, Kankakee	Exits in Dwight
Grundy			220	IL 47 – Dwight, Morris
			227	IL 53 – Gardner
			233	Reed Road – Braidwood
Will
			236	IL 113 – Kankakee, Coal City
			238	IL 129 south – Braidwood
			240	Lorenzo Road
			241	Wilmington
			245	Arsenal Road
			247	Bluff Road
	Channahon		248	US 6 – Joliet, Morris
			250	I-80 – Iowa, Indiana	Signed as exits 250A (east) and 250B (west)
	Shorewood		251	IL 59 – Shorewood, Plainfield	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
			253	US 52 – Joliet, Shorewood
	Joliet
			257	US 30 – Aurora, Joliet
	Plainfield		261	IL 126 west – Plainfield	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	Romeoville		263	Weber Road
	Bolingbrook
			267	IL 53 – Bolingbrook, Romeoville
			268	Historic US 66 west (Joliet Road)	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
			269	I-355 (Veterans Memorial Tollway) – Northwest Suburbs, Southwest Suburbs
DuPage	Darien		271	Lemont Road	Signed as exits 271A (south) and 271B (north)
			273	Cass Avenue	Signed as exits 273A (south) and 273B (north)
	Willowbrook		274	IL 83 (Kingery Road)
	Burr Ridge
			276	County Line Road	Signed as exits 276A (south) and 276B (north)
Cook
	Indian Head Park		276C	Historic US 66 east (Joliet Road)	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
			277	I-294 (Tri-State Tollway) – Indiana, Wisconsin	Signed as exits 277A (north) and 277B (south); southbound exit to I-294 south is via exit 279A
	Countryside
			279	US 12 / US 20 / US 45 (La Grange Road)	Signed as exits 279A (east/south) and 279B (west/north)
	Hodgkins
	Summit		282	IL 171 (1st Avenue)	Signed as exits 282A (south) and 282B (north) northbound
			283	IL 43 (Harlem Avenue (7200 West))
	Chicago
			285	Central Avenue (5600 West)
			286	IL 50 (Cicero Avenue (4800 West)) – Chicago Midway Airport
			287	Pulaski Road (4000 West)
			288	Kedzie Avenue (3200 West)	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
			289	California Avenue (2800 West)	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
			290	Damen Avenue (2000 West)
			290	Ashland Avenue (1600 West)	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
			292	I-90 / I-94 (Dan Ryan Expressway) – Indiana, Wisconsin	Signed as exits 292A (west) and 292B (east) northbound, and as exits 292 (west) and 293B (east) southbound
			293A	Cermak Road – Chinatown (2200 South)	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
			293C	State Street (0 East/West)	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
			293D	Martin L. King Drive (400 East)	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
			294.38	US 41 (Lake Shore Drive)	Freeway Begins/Ends; Northbound exit to and southbound exit from Lake Shore Drive North/South
Beginning of I-55 Southbound to I-10, end of I-55 Northbound. Roadway continues north to Ft. Wilkins State Park, Michigan via Lake Shore Drive.

Related routes

Interstate 55 Business (Springfield)

Interstate 55 Business
Location:	Springfield

Business Loop 55 refers to a major arterial surface street that serves downtown Springfield, Illinois. It runs north from the intersection of Interstates 55 and Interstate 72 through downtown to Illinois Route 4 (Veterans' Parkway). It then runs northeast to Sherman.

All of Business Loop 55 was part of U.S. Route 66 at some point.

Interstate 55 Business (Lincoln)

Interstate 55 Business
Location:	Lincoln

Interstate 55 Business (Bloomington-Normal)

Interstate 55 Business
Location:	Bloomington-Normal

References

Interstate 55
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