Irving Park Road Chicago-Elgin Road | ||||
IL 19 highlighted in red | ||||
Route information | ||||
Maintained by IDOT and CDOT | ||||
Length | 33.64 mi [1] (54.14 km) | |||
Existed | 1949 [2] –present | |||
Major junctions | ||||
West end | ![]() | |||
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East end | ![]() | |||
Location | ||||
Country | United States | |||
State | Illinois | |||
Counties | Kane, Cook, DuPage | |||
Highway system | ||||
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Illinois Route 19 (abbreviated IL-19, or simply Illinois 19) is a major east–west arterial state highway in northeastern Illinois, United States. It runs from Illinois Route 25 (Liberty St.) in Elgin, to Lake Shore Drive (U.S. Route 41) on the north side of Chicago. Illinois 19 is 33.64 miles (54.14 km) long. [1] For much of its length, it is also known as Irving Park Road and Chicago-Elgin Road.
Illinois 19 fluctuates from being a two lane road in rural parts to six lanes by highway interchanges. In Elgin, the road is mostly four lanes, narrowing to two in relatively undeveloped, forested sections between Illinois Route 59 and Elgin. East of Barrington Road, the road becomes a main artery through the western suburbs of Chicago. The Elgin-O'Hare Expressway (now known as Illinois Route 390) was built in part to reduce traffic on Illinois 19 through Roselle and Itasca.
The road narrows from six to two lanes between Schaumburg and Roselle, and again (from four lanes to two) in Medinah and through Itasca. The road then becomes four lanes in Wood Dale and maintains this width to its eastern terminus, except for a narrower stretch between N. Cumberland Avenue (Illinois 171) and N. Austin Avenue in Chicago.
East of Bensenville Illinois 19 becomes one of only seven state highways to enter the city of Chicago. It passes along the current southern border of O'Hare International Airport and serves as the main gateway for western suburbs to access the airport.
At the Tri-State Tollway in Schiller Park, traffic on Illinois 19 may enter the northbound lanes of the tollway. Traffic wishing to enter the southbound lanes must enter at Balmoral (via Mannheim) or Interstate 190 to the north. The Chicago city limits officially start at the Des Plaines River. Illinois 19 runs through the O'Hare, Dunning, Portage Park, Irving Park, North Center and Lake View neighborhoods before ending at a traffic signal beneath Lake Shore Drive (U.S. Route 41).
The road used to be named Chicago-Elgin Road, but east of Elgin it has been renamed Irving Park Road, for the Irving Park neighborhood of Chicago located between Cicero Avenue and the north branch of the Chicago River in Chicago. [3] In Elgin itself, it has since been renamed East Chicago Street. As of 2005, some signage on approaching streets still identified Irving Park Road as Chicago-Elgin Road.
The original Route 19 was designated in 1918 as what is now U.S. Route 14 from Chicago Loop to Harvard. [4] [5] In 1935, the routing was removed, [6] and in 1949 it was reapplied on part of its modern-day routing. [7] As of 1968, IL 72 was cut back from Lake Shore Drive (US 41) to its present terminus. As a result, the IL 19 designation was extended from its terminus at Narragansett Avenue (formerly assigned as part of IL 72) by 7 miles (11 km) to Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. [8] [9]
Irving Park Road once ran straight through where O'Hare International Airport's 04R/22L Runway now sits. The road was realigned to the south in the 1960s in order to build the runway. Again in 2012, the road was realigned to the south as part of the O'Hare Modernization Plan to build runway 10R/28L. [10]
On November 16, 2006, aldermen in Wood Dale approved a plan to redesign the intersection of Irving Park Road and Wood Dale Road. The intersection is currently fully interconnected to railroad signals for the active Metra Milwaukee District/West Line tracks, creating a situation where vehicles on both roads may be at risk of being hit by oncoming commuter trains. In addition, freight trains emerge from the Canadian Pacific Railway's Bensenville freight railroad yard during off peak rush hours. After the $45 million reconstruction, Irving Park Road would have crossed underneath the railroad tracks further northwest from the current intersection. [11] Two alternatives were advanced in a city council meeting: Alternate 2, which would move Irving Park Road slightly north, displace 18 businesses but have flood-plain and line-of-sight issues, and Alternate 2A, which would displace 47 homes and 13 businesses. [12]
The plan was killed in early March 2007 after local opposition to a Division Street extension through property owned by Holy Ghost Church. The city has since decided to investigate alternative safety measures at the intersection, including the addition of turn lanes and red-light cameras. [13]
The CTA services the 80 Irving Park between Inner Drive and Cumberland Avenue. The 9 Ashland, X9 Ashland Express and 54A North Cicero/Skokie Blvd serve the road for short segments.
The following CTA lines service Irving Park Road:
County | Location | mi | km | Destinations | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kane | Elgin | 0.00 | 0.00 | ![]() | Western terminus |
Cook | Streamwood | 3.65 | 5.87 | ![]() | |
Schaumburg | 8.47 | 13.63 | ![]() ![]() | I-Pass only; IL 390 exit 7 | |
DuPage | Roselle | 10.13 | 16.30 | ![]() | |
Medinah | 11.74 | 18.89 | ![]() | ||
Itasca | 13.16 | 21.18 | ![]() | ||
14.95 | 24.06 | ![]() ![]() | |||
Wood Dale | 15.98 | 25.72 | ![]() | ||
Bensenville | 17.06 | 27.46 | ![]() ![]() | Access via Spruce Avenue and Marshall Road | |
17.59 | 28.31 | ![]() ![]() | |||
![]() ![]() | Future Interchange | ||||
Cook | Schiller Park | 20.90 | 33.64 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | Access to southbound I-294 via US 12/45 north |
21.23 | 34.17 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | I-294 exit 38 | ||
Chicago | 23.36 | 37.59 | ![]() | ||
24.88 | 40.04 | ![]() | |||
27.97 | 45.01 | ![]() | The Six Corners | ||
28.80 | 46.35 | ![]() ![]() | I-94 exit 44 | ||
33.64 | 54.14 | ![]() ![]() | Eastern terminus; interchange | ||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi |
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Illinois Route 58, also known as Golf Road for most of its route, is a state highway in northeast Illinois. It runs from Illinois Route 25 in Elgin east to U.S. Route 41 in Skokie. This is a distance of 27.88 miles (44.87 km).
Illinois Route 83 (IL 83) is a 91.73-mile-long (147.63 km) major north–south state highway in northeast Illinois. It stretches from U.S. Route 30 by Lynwood and Dyer, Indiana, north to the Wisconsin border by Antioch at Wisconsin Highway 83 (WIS 83).
Illinois Route 43 is a 60.30-mile-long (97.04 km) major north–south state highway in the U.S. state of Illinois. It runs from U.S. Route 30 (US 30) in Frankfort north to the large intersection of IL 120 and US 41 in Waukegan.
Illinois Route 40 is a 112.05-mile-long (180.33 km) north–south route in central portion of the U.S. state of Illinois. It runs from Interstate 74 (I-74) in East Peoria north to IL 78 at Mt. Carroll, just south of U.S. Route 52 and IL 64.
Illinois Route 171 (IL 171) is a 38.61-mile-long (62.14 km) north–south state highway in northeastern Illinois. It runs from U.S. Route 6 (US 6) in Joliet north to Illinois Route 72 at the Chicago–Park Ridge border. The section of IL 171 on Archer Avenue from Joliet to Summit is historically significant, originating as a Native American trail, and later serving for a time as part of the first numbered highway between St. Louis and Chicago.
Illinois Route 31 (IL 31) is a 58.41-mile-long (94.00 km) north–south state highway in northeastern Illinois, United States. It travels from U.S. Route 34 (US 34) in Oswego north to US 12, near the Wisconsin state line, just south of Richmond.
Illinois Route 60 is a 17.22-mile-long (27.71 km) east–west state highway in Lake County, in northeastern Illinois. It connects the village of Volo at Illinois Route 120 just east of Illinois Route 59 with the city of Lake Forest at U.S. Highway 41.
Illinois Route 390 (IL 390), previously known as the Elgin–O'Hare Expressway, now known as the Elgin–O'Hare Tollway, is a 9.8-mile-long (15.8 km) electronic toll highway in northeastern Illinois. IL 390 currently connects U.S. Route 20 in Hanover Park to the intersection with Illinois Route 83 and Thorndale Avenue in Wood Dale. The only other towns it borders are Schaumburg and Roselle. Construction is underway to extend the road from IL 83 to the western edge of O'Hare International Airport.
Illinois Route 4 is a major north–south highway that runs south from the Interstate 55 business loop around the state capital of Springfield, south to Illinois Route 13 just north of Murphysboro. This is a distance of 170.44 miles (274.30 km).
Lake Street is an east–west street in Chicago and part of its suburbs. A portion of Lake Street is designated as U.S. Route 20. Lake Street begins in downtown Chicago and travels west to the eastern terminus of the Elgin Bypass around suburban Elgin. The street travels west through the city and then begins to travel in a northwest fashion through several suburbs. The street is a distance of roughly 34.4 miles (55.4 km).
Illinois Route 137 is a 23.49-mile-long (37.80 km) state highway in northeast Illinois. It runs from the Wisconsin Border north of Winthrop Harbor south to North Chicago, west to Libertyville, and then back northwest to Grayslake, terminating at IL 83 just south of IL 120.
Interstate 490 (I-490), also known as O'Hare West Bypass and Western O'Hare Beltway, is a proposed electronic toll highway and a beltway near Chicago, Illinois, that would run along the west side of O'Hare International Airport. The tollway would connect I-294 to a western access point to the airport. From there, it would continue northward to an extension of the Illinois Route 390 (IL 390) and I-90. The O'Hare Western Bypass is part of the Elgin–O'Hare Western Access (EOWA) project. Building the highway would affect the villages of Elk Grove Village, Wood Dale, Itasca, and Bensenville. The proposed route runs through the American Airlines Flight 191 crash site, the deadliest aviation accident in US history.
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U.S. Route 12 (US 12) in the U.S. state of Illinois is an arterial highway that runs northwest to southeast through the Chicago metropolitan area. It enters Illinois at the Wisconsin border north of Richmond, and exits into Hammond, Indiana from Chicago near the foot of the onramp to the Indiana Toll Road ; as it exits Illinois, the route is also concurrent with US 20 and US 41. Within Illinois, US 12 runs for a distance of 85.14 miles (137.02 km).
U.S. Route 41 (US 41) in the U.S. state of Illinois runs north from the Indiana border beneath the Chicago Skyway on Indianapolis Boulevard to the Wisconsin border north of the northern terminus of the Tri-State Tollway with Interstate 94. It is the only north–south U.S. Route to travel through a significant portion of the city of Chicago, carrying Lake Shore Drive through the central portion of the city along the lakefront. US 41 in Illinois is 64.81 miles (104.30 km) in length.
U.S. Route 54 (US 54) in Illinois is a 23.9-mile-long (38.5 km) east–west highway that travels from the Champ Clark Bridge on the Missouri state line to I-72/US 36/IL 107 south of Griggsville. At its greatest extent, US 54 used to continue east to Springfield, then northeast to Onarga, and then north all the way to Downtown Chicago.
U.S. Route 45 in the state of Illinois is a major north–south U.S. Highway that runs from the Brookport Bridge over the Ohio River at Brookport north through rural sections of eastern Illinois and then through the suburbs of Chicago to the Wisconsin state line east of Antioch. This is a distance of 428.99 miles (690.39 km). US 45 is the longest numbered route in Illinois.
U.S. Route 14 (US 14) in the state of Illinois is a major arterial that runs southeast from the Wisconsin state line north of Harvard, Illinois, to the north side of Chicago at US 41.
Several special routes of U.S. Route 20 exist. In order from west to east they are as follows.
Route map: