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| I-294 today, 60 years after it was first proposed (Illinoistollway.com) |
Life began to
change for Illinois drivers 60 years ago on this date as Governor William
Stratton, the youngest governor in the country at the time, endorsed the
concept of Illinois toll road construction in a speech before the 47th
annual convention of the Associated General Contractors of Illinois.
“Toll roads for
Illinois are no longer a speculation,” the governor stated. “They are an imminent development long
overdue. They are an urgent necessity. There are the key to important highways of
the near future for Illinois and for all America.”
In some ways the
job of Illinois was made easier because of its tardiness in getting
started. The Ohio turnpike was already
under construction at the time, and Michigan was in the advanced planning
stages for a turnpike from Detroit to Benton Harbor, swinging south from there to
Chicago. Iowa was also planning its
east-west route, and Missouri had two turnpikes in the planning stages, both reaching
Illinois at St. Louis.
It seemed that all
the Land of Lincoln had to do was connect the dots.
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| Governor Stratton (Illinoisancestors.org) |
“Illinois is the
center of this development and will have to furnish the links across tis state
. . . the most critical problem is the Chicago area,” Governor Stratton
said. “To avoid the expense of building
in Chicago we might go around the city . . . We can make three or four surveys
simultaneously. While engaging some
engineering consultants on the Chicagoland feasibility studies, others can look
into the possibilities of U. S. 66 as a toll project from Mount Olive into East
St. Louis.”
The Illinois Toll
Highway Authority was created in 1941, but things didn’t really begin to move
along until the governor made his address in 1953 since World War Ii and a shortage of materials
after the war made any construction effort impossible. It was in 1953 that the Illinois State Toll
Highway Commission was established and began its planning.
Within five years, by 1958, the surveys were completed, the land purchased, and three toll roads
had been. We know them
today as the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90), the Tri-State Tollway (I-94),
and the Ronald Reagan Tollway (I-88).
From that endorsement of Governor Stratton back on this date in 1953 came today’s present system
of four toll roads covering 286 miles in 12 northern Illinois counties.
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