Interstate 355
Interstate 355 (abbreviated I-355), also known as the North-South Tollway, is a 20-mile (32 km) interstate highway and tollway located in the western suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, USA (part of a metropolitan area sometimes known as Chicagoland). Although the interstate is known for being a tollway, the tollway portion actually starts south of Army Trail Road, 2 miles (4 km) south of the northern terminus. Exits to U.S. Highway 20 (Lake Street) and Army Trail Road from the north are free, and pre-existed on the freeway portion of old Illinois State Route 53.
I-355 is a spur route of Interstate 55, and I-55 serves as I-355's southern terminus, in extreme northern Will County. There are two toll plazas on the interstate. I-355's northern terminus is with Interstate 290 in DuPage County. After the southern extension is completed in 2007, Interstate 355 will terminate at Interstate 80 in the Joliet area.
In Chicagoland traffic reports, Interstate 290 north of the tollway and Illinois 53 north of Interstate 90 are also considered to be part of the tollway, even though they are freeways. This is because it is easier to refer to the entire north-south length as a continuous route in traffic reports instead of separating the route into its three distinct parts.
History
Interstate 355 was commissioned in 1989 to ease pressure on nearby Illinois 53, and to a lesser extent, to ease pressure on the rapidly-growing Tri-State Tollway (Interstate 294). Illinois 53 was at that point the main north-south artery through central DuPage County. It frequently suffered from overcrowding, as it was two lanes (one northbound, one southbound) for most of its length. During construction, the highway had to be built around the ecologically sensitive and low-lying DuPage River valley, as well as the Morton Arboretum.
The road opened on December 24th, 1989. As a Christmas gift, the first two days of operation were completely free. Initially, the road was a four lane highway from Illinois State Route 64 (North Avenue) to Interstate 88 (Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway) even though it was built wide enough to be six; within the first few years, the two-lane wide shoulders were converted to the third lane in each direction due to overcrowding.
Being one of the newer tollways in the system, the North-South Tollway has also seen considerable improvements earlier than the other tollways. Around the late 1990s, the North-South Tollway became the first tollway to have I-PASS installed; only a few years later, it become the first tollway (and second installation behind the lesser-used Edens Spur) to have I-PASS Express Lanes, a form of open road tolling (ORT).
The Tollway Authority's grander vision of ORT will also be instituted first on the North-South Tollway, when the express lanes are widened one lane to three lanes in each direction. This will allow the number of express lanes to match the number of travel lanes on the tollway, one of the goals of ORT.
In late 2005, construction began on the southern extension of I-355 from Woodridge to Joliet. This portion will look similar to the southern portion of current I-355 south of Interstate 88. Prior to construction, local residents protested against the expressway because of reduction in their property values. In addition, some environmentalists protested because of the sensitivity of the Des Plaines River wetlands where construction would take place. Will County officials lobbied for the extension in an attempt to boost economic development in the Joliet-to-Woodridge corridor.
Cities of Service
Between I-55 and Addison, I-355 passes through or very near to the following communities:
- Bolingbrook
- Woodridge
- Lisle
- Downers Grove
- Wheaton
- Lombard
- Glen Ellyn
- Addison
- Glendale Heights
- Itasca
Southern Extension
The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority has plans to extend I-355 further south to Interstate 80 and perhaps to Interstate 57 and around to Interstate 65, relieving congestion on Interstate 80/94. Bidding on an excavation contract passed on November 18th of 2004 with construction beginning several days later, and barring any further legal delays the extension to Interstate 80 is to be completed by late 2007.
Six interchanges will be modified or created with the southern extension, located at:
- Interstate 55
- 127th Street
- 143rd Street and Illinois State Route 171 (Archer Avenue)
- 159th Street (Illinois State Route 7)
- U.S. Highway 6 (Southwest Highway)
- Interstate 80
The extension will be 12.5 miles (20 km) long, and feature a 1.5 mile (2 km) long bridge over the Des Plaines River, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Bluff Road, numerous railroads, and the Commonwealth Edison utility corridor.
Interchanges
Exits on the North-South Tollway are not numbered.
| Mile | Destinations | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highways and/or Control Cities | Municipality | ||
| Interstate 355 from mile 0.0 to mile 13.0 is under construction and will not be open until late 2007. | |||
| 0.0 | File:Interstate 80.svg Interstate 80 - Joliet, Illinois, Toledo, Ohio | New Lenox, Illinois | Future southern terminus of Interstate 355. |
| ~1.0 |  U.S. Route 6
|
||
| ~5.5 | File:Illinois SR 7.jpg Illinois State Route 7 - 159th Street | Lockport, Illinois | |
| ~7.0 | File:Illinois SR 171.jpg Illinois State Route 171 - 143rd Street | Homer Glen, Illinois | |
| ~12.0 | 127th Street | Lemont, Illinois | |
| 12.5 | File:Interstate 55.svg Interstate 55 - St. Louis, Missouri, Chicago, Illinois | Bolingbrook, Illinois | Current southern terminus of Interstate 355. Flyover ramps currently being built for southern expansion. |
| 13.0 | Boughton Road Toll Barrier - Plaza #89 | ||
| 13.5 | Boughton Road | Bolingbrook, Illinois | Full interchange; tolls on southbound entrance, northbound exit ramps. |
| 15.5 | 75th Street - Darien, Illinois | Woodridge, Illinois | Full interchange; tolls on southbound exit, northbound entrance ramps. |
| 17.0 | 63rd Street - Downers Grove, Illinois | Full interchange; tolls on southbound exit, northbound entrance ramps. | |
| 18.5 | Maple Avenue | Lisle, Illinois Downers Grove, Illinois |
Full interchange; tolls on southbound exit, northbound entrance ramps. |
| 19.5 |  U.S. Route 34 - Ogden Avenue
|
||
| 19.5 NB, 23.0 SB | File:Interstate 88.svg Interstate 88 - Aurora, Illinois, Chicago, Illinois | Downers Grove, Illinois | Full interchange. Interstate 88 and Interstate 355 run side-by-side for over two miles at this point. |
| 23.0 | File:Illinois SR 56.jpg Illinois State Route 56 - Butterfield Road | Interchange is part of Interstate 88 collector-distributor ramp southbound, and part of eastbound Interstate 88 entrance ramp northbound. Tolls on southbound entrance, northbound exit ramps. | |
| 25.0 | File:Illinois SR 38.jpg Illinois State Route 38 - Roosevelt Road | Wheaton, Illinois | Full interchange. Tolls on southbound entrance, northbound exit ramps. |
| 28.0 | File:Illinois SR 64.jpg Illinois State Route 64 - North Avenue | Glendale Heights, Illinois | Full interchange. Tolls on southbound entrance, northbound exit ramps. |
| 28.25 | Army Trail Road Toll Barrier - Plaza #73 | ||
| 29.0 | Army Trail Road | Bloomingdale, Illinois Addison, Illinois |
|
| 30.5 |  U.S. Route 20 - Lake Street
|
Partial collector-distributor interchange. | |
| 31.5 | File:Interstate 290.svg Interstate 290 - Rockford, Illinois, Chicago, Illinois | Addison, Illinois | Northern terminus of Interstate 355. |
External links
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