Route Description
Illinois 137 is called Buckley Road in the northwest-southeast segment, as well as the east–west segment east of Illinois Route 21 (Milwaukee Avenue). Between these segments, in northern Libertyville, it is called Peterson Road, which continues west as Illinois 137 turns northwest. In North Chicago, at the east end of the Buckley Road alignment, the route turns north where it cuts Naval Station Great Lakes into two areas, and becomes Sheridan Road for most of its remaining length to the Wisconsin state line. The exception is the Amstutz Expressway, which runs from Sheridan Road near the southern border of Waukegan to Greenwood Avenue roughly 2 miles (3.2 km) north, where the expressway abruptly ends; Illinois 137 follows Greenwood Avenue west a short distance back to Sheridan Road and continues north through Beach Park, Zion, and Winthrop Harbor before terminating at the state line. Wisconsin Highway 32 continues north as Sheridan Road.
The Amstutz Expressway is a short, limited-access road located in downtown Waukegan. It was built in the 1970s to ease traffic in Waukegan’s downtown area, but is now also known as the "road to nowhere". The 2.9-mile (4.7 km), four-lane highway was intended to be a connecting route for the downtown area, but a critical link through the neighboring village of North Chicago was never built, and the factories that the expressway was designed to serve have since closed. Today, the thoroughfare carries fewer than 15,000 vehicles per day. Because it is used so little, this short stretch of highway has been the setting for filming such movies as Groundhog Day, The Blues Brothers, The Ice Harvest, and Batman Begins.
In the early 2000s, proposals were made to remove the expressway, thus narrowing the space needed for roadway, and then moving the nearby railroad right-of-way to the unused expressway land as part of a revitalization project for the lakefront area. Illinois 137 follows the entire length of the expressway, and received this designation in 1994 when Illinois 137 was extended north to the Wisconsin state line.
The Amstutz Expressway was named after Mel Amstutz, a former Lake County Highway Superintendent. In 2007, legislation was pending in the Illinois General Assembly to rename the expressway, Bobby Thompson Expressway, after the former mayor of North Chicago. The bill received unanimous support in the Illinois House of Representatives, but has not yet been voted on by the Illinois Senate. This name change took effect in 2010.
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