Illinois Roads - Chicago/Cook Co.

Chicago and Cook County



Lawrence Ave. EB between I-90 and I-94 north of downtown.


Avenue M southbound under a pair of trestles after 98th Pl.


A trio of speed limits showing Chicago's old font: Randolph St. WB at Stetson Ave., Commercial Ave. SB near 103rd St., and Vermont Ave. WB just after it begins.


130th St. WB between Indiana Avenue. (Indiana uses 130th to jog west under the railroad.)


State St. and Dolton St. WB in the happy town of Calumet City.


Francisco Ave. NB passes under a railroad just before ending at Wireton Rd. in Blue Island.


131st St. WB, leaving Blue Island and narrowing from "four" divided lanes to two undivided lanes. (I put "four" in quotes because there are no stripes, and no traffic that would require using more than one lane.) The first photo is of Sheridan Avenue.


California Ave. heading north from I-55, under a pair of railroad trestles and across the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal between them.


Things get tricky when 31st St. meets 31st Blvd. 31st Blvd. feeds into Western Blvd., while 31st St. ends at Western Ave. Both of the 31sts and both of the Westerns run parallel. The first photo looks east along 31st Blvd. The rest are on 31st St., just to the north of the Blvd. The railroad trestle in the last photo is unoccupied for the first two tracks, and therefore the western two of the four Sanitary and Ship Canal bridges to the south are defunct. I mention those bridges because of their interesting design: they are wedge-shaped lift bridges, but the wedges alternate between north and south, creating an "M"-shaped profile when viewed from the side despite each bridge being triangular.


Downtown Chicago has upper and lower levels. The lower level is mostly for service entrances and parking, although with much less traffic than the upper level, it's also useful for rush hour travel. The catch is that it's hard to get to the lower level. There's also a bigger catch: some streets have not two, but three levels. The first photo here is on the "Sub-Lower" level of Columbus Drive SB, below Lower Columbus (which heads through downtown) and Upper Columbus (which only connects Upper Randolph St. to Upper Wacker Dr.). This is at a short dead-end way under the top Lake St., at the western edge of the 3-level system. The second photo looks west from the south end of Sub-Lower Columbus at Sub-Lower Randolph St., which also dead-ends in this photo. Lower Randolph (middle layer) continues west, and Upper Randolph (top, outside) comes down on a pair of ramps to join it.

Old US 66
Addison Street
Division Street
LaSalle Street
Wacker Drive
Western Avenue
Calumet River bridges
Cal-Sag Channel bridges
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal / Chicago River bridges
North Branch Chicago River bridges
I-55
I-57
I-80
I-90
I-90/94
I-190
I-290
I-94
I-294
US 6
US 12
US 14
US 20
US 30
US 34
US 41
US 45
IL 1
IL 43
IL 53
IL 72
IL 83
IL 390, Elgin-O'Hare Expressway
Chicago Non-Roads
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