Marion, Illinois - Transportation - Highways

Highways

Illinois Route 13, originally along Main Street, and Illinois Route 37 (Court Street) both opened up in the first round of the hard roads highway system in the 1920s. The state altered 13 with a new four-lane route along DeYoung Street in the late 1950s. Interstate 57 first opened in 1961 and runs through the western portion of the city. It connects with Interstate 24 a few miles south of town.

The Illinois Department of Transportation has started widening Route 13 to six lanes from I-57 west to Carterville. Bids are set to go out this fall to start work on 6-lanes from the interstate east to Route 37. Also, plans are being made to re-place the existing interstate overpass over 13, and completely re-do Exit 54 changing it from a cloverleaf to a single-point interchange.

In addition to the two existing interchanges, a new southbound off-ramp at Morgan Avenue on the north side of the city will be expanded later in 2011 with a new northbound on-ramp from Morgan onto the interstate. When the rest of Exit 54 is reconstructed, two flyover lanes will connect northbound interstate traffic to Morgan as well as southbound traffic from Morgan to the interstate.

The Illinois Department of Transportation is making plans to widen Interstate 57 from four to six lanes from Interstate 24 south of Marion north to the interchanges with Interstate 64 at Mount Vernon. The first work on the project is scheduled at the north end along the stretch that hosts traffic from both interstates.

The Average Daily Traffic Count as of February 2011 for Illinois Route 13 is 15,300 on the east edge of town. It picks up to 22,500 on the east side of the intersection with Illinois Route 37; 25,000 by the intersection with North Carbon Street; 31,100 by the east side of the interstate. Once west of the interstate the count drops to 30,700, then 28,800 in front of Heartland Medical Center and down to 26,400 in front of the Williamson County Regional Airport. Interstate 57 sees an average of 33,700 vehicles making up the traffic county north of Exit 54 at Marion and 26,900 vehicles a day south of Exit 53.

Other major street projects underway at the present time is the extension of Champions Drive south to Halfway Road which will connect Kokopelli Golf Course with Rent One Park and the city's major hotel district; as well as engineering work for widening Morgan Drive, Carbon and Russell Streets to handle traffic expected to be generated in a few years by the Millennium Development.