Illinois Roads - I-55 - mainline

I-55 mainline



NB to Springfield, where the US 66 divided highway continued through the city on what is now Business I-55 (6th St.), but the Interstate needs to take a freeway around the side.


Older, center-tabbed signs announce I-55's NB arrival in Bloomington. It's nice to see a US highway mentioned as part of a freeway, but which directions does it go, and which one is which way?


This is a right exit from I-55 NB/I-74 WB, so the exit number should be on the right. This is what happens because Illinois uses full-width exit tabs.

Before I-74 leaves, have some button copy.


After I-74 leaves, have a strange construction sign. Unfortunately, "BUSN" is an Illinois-standard abbreviation, not a contractor error.


NB across the Des Plaines River. (I technically just said "The The Plains.")


A run of SB button copy, all except the second photo courtesy Doug Kerr. There's just not much left.


The SB frontage road ends at a huge distribution center after Exit 267, but it once continued through to Veterans Parkway. The guiderails were never removed.


All SB, and all but the first courtesy Doug Kerr, heading off Exit 269 and back on in 2006, after dropping off and picking up traffic to and from I-355.


Since then, I-355 was extended to the south, so instead of the C-D road that has these SB signs sharing I-355 SB and I-55 SB traffic as it did in 2006, it now shares I-355 NB (with a new loop) and I-55 SB traffic. I-355 SB traffic has a slip ramp on the outside to avoid complicating the weave. Because there's still a need to get 355 traffic onto 55, the old button copy signs still work. That, and being off the mainline, is why they weren't replaced.


The reconfiguration of the I-355 interchange killed off any button copy related to the Interstate, but these signs from the Exit 269 1-mile advance remain.


The signs in the southbound direction (see above) tell you that this is Exit 269. These photos are courtesy Doug Kerr, from before the I-355 extension. There's no longer a loop here, and both directions of I-355 are now accessed from a C-D road that takes on traffic from Joliet Rd.


Remaining old NB signs in 2012. Black button copy? Sign me up!

May this NB sign never grow old.


SB, 3rd and 5th-8th photos courtesy Doug Kerr.


Between the 7th and 8th photos of the previous run, we have the Bubbly Creek Chicago and Alton Railroad bridge, a 1906 Page bascule design that looks like half a truss chopped off at the counterweight, and the Kedzie Avenue Railroad Bridge built in 1908 for the Chicago Madison & Northern, the longest remaining swing bridge on the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal.


NB button copy, ending with the same signs the SB side began with.

I-64 and I-55/64
I-70 and I-55/70
Arsenal Rd. interchange (Exit 245)
One of several exits to old US 66 (I-55's predecessor)

Onto Business I-55, Springfield
Back to I-55 main page

Into Missouri on I-55
Exit 157 or 163 to I-74
Exit 157 to US 51
Exit 160 to US 150
Onto I-39
Exit 250 to I-80
Exit 267 to IL 53
Exit 269 to I-355
Exit 283 to IL 43
Exit 292 or 293B to I-90/94 or, separately, I-90 or I-94
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