Future
The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) launched a series of studies to help facilitate access to west central Illinois, colloquially named Forgottonia for the lack of highways through the region. Currently in progress are upgrades (to a four-lane expressway) of U.S. Highway 67 from U.S. Highway 34 in Monmouth (near Galesburg) south to Macomb, and U.S. 67 from Macomb south to Alton, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Also underway is a similar upgrade of Illinois 336 from Quincy to Macomb.
The Peoria-to-Macomb study involves an eastern link from Macomb to Peoria alongside existing U.S. Route 136. The corridor being studied runs from U.S. 67 east to Interstate 474, and has been studied since the 1950s by Illinois and Federal agencies as a potential link between Chicago and Kansas City, Missouri, the Chicago-Kansas City Expressway. As of May 2006, the corridor study had identified two alternatives for Illinois 336. The route would be a limited access freeway for a few miles outside of Macomb to Bardolph, and again for a few miles outside of Peoria, east of Hanna City. For either alternative, Illinois 336 would be constructed as an expressway between Hanna City and Bardolph. In Illinois, an expressway allows partial-access to the highway, with direct access to the expressway from private residences and fields, while retaining interchanges and frontage roads for businesses and arterial state routes.
The completion of Illinois 336 would also relieve congestion on U.S. Route 24, currently the only direct route between Peoria and Quincy. It would also allow Peoria to Quincy traffic to avoid the alternate route — Interstate 155 south to Interstate 55 through Springfield, to Interstate 72 west. This combination of highways is currently the fastest route between Peoria and Quincy. Illinois 336 would shave at least 50 miles (81 km) and up to an hour off the trip. Currently, both U.S. 24 and the Interstate 155/55/72 routes require upwards of 3.25 hours of travel.
This route would also provide a faster route from Peoria to reach cities such as Kansas City and Denver.
There have also been discussions on using future Illinois 336 for a Peoria-to-Chicago Highway but is still being debated.
Read more about this topic: Illinois Route 336
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“There are many of us who cannot but feel dismal about the future of various cultures. Often it is hard not to agree that we are becoming culinary nitwits, dependent upon fast foods and mass kitchens and megavitamins for our basically rotten nourishment.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)
“We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“The present hour is always wealthiest when it is poorer than the future ones, as that is the pleasantest site which affords the pleasantest prospects.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)