Interstate 94 in Illinois

Interstate 94
I-94 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by IDOT and ISTHA
Length	77.41 mi[1] (124.58 km)
Major junctions
West end	I-41 / I-94 / US 41 near Zion
Major intersections	I-294 Toll in Northbrook I-90 in Chicago I-290 / IL 110 (CKC) in Chicago I-55 in Chicago I-90 Toll / Chicago Skyway in Chicago I-57 in Chicago I-80 Toll / I-294 Toll / IL 394 in South Holland
East end	I-80 / I-94 / US 6 at Lansing
Location
Counties	Lake, Cook
Highway system
Interstate Highway System Main Auxiliary Suffixed Business Future Illinois State Highway System Interstate US State Tollways
← IL 93 → IL 94

Interstate 94 (I-94) generally runs north–south through the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of Illinois, in Lake and Cook counties. It is signed east–west in Illinois in accordance with its general alignment across the country, with west signage aligned with northbound travel and visa-versa. I-94 in Illinois is 78.00 miles (125.53 km) long.^[1]

The William G. Edens Expressway (also known as the Edens Parkway and the Edens Superhighway) is the main major expressway north from the city of Chicago to Northbrook, Illinois. Only the short portion from the spur ramp to the expressway's end in Highland Park does not carry I-94. It was the first expressway in Chicago and was opened on December 20, 1951. It has three lanes in each direction. The original name of the expressway was the Edens Parkway, named after William Grant Edens (1863–1957), a banker and early advocate for paved roads. He was a sponsor of Illinois' first highway bond issue in 1918.

From the southern terminus of the Edens, I-94 follows part or all of several other named highways; joining I-90 on the Kennedy Expressway and the Dan Ryan Expressway through the center of Chicago, following the Bishop Ford Freeway through the southside of Chicago to I-80, where it joins the Kingery Expressway before entering Indiana.

Route description[]

The control cities for I-94 generally are Wisconsin or Milwaukee to the north and west, Chicago or Chicago Loop for those heading to the central portion, and Indiana to the south and east.

Wisconsin to Downtown Chicago[]

I-94 traverses rural and suburban areas in Lake County, and serves Six Flags Great America and the Gurnee Mills mall; extensive office developments and residential districts in southern Lake County and the North Shore region of Cook County, and serves the Old Orchard Shopping Center; the length of the city of Chicago, running just west of the Chicago Loop on the Kennedy Expressway.

Entering Illinois from Wisconsin, I-94 becomes the Tri-State Tollway just after exit 1B (Skokie Highway), with eight lanes (four in each direction), until just north of Deerfield Road where it widens further to 10 lanes as it approaches I-294 and the Edens Spur. This is where three lanes for the Tri-State Tollway branch off and begin I-294 while two lanes for I-94 head east onto the Edens Spur which only has four lanes total (two in each direction).

The highway turns south and widens back to six lanes as it merges with U.S. Route 41 and becomes the Edens Expressway, and then widens to ten lanes (four lanes in each direction plus two reversible lanes) along the Kennedy Expressway. At Ohio Street, the reversible lanes terminate and the highway has 10 lanes to the Jane Byrne Interchange, where the left lane ends and the right lane exits onto the Eisenhower Expressway.

Until 2010, mileposts along the Tri-State Tollway portion of I-94 reflected the distance from the southeastern terminus of the tollway, that led to a counterintuitive increase in the mile numbers as one proceeds "west." In 2010, the mile markers were renumbered to indicate mileage of I-94 traveled in Illinois, increasing from the Wisconsin border to the Indiana border.^[2]

Downtown Chicago to Indiana[]

South of downtown Chicago, I-94 serves the southeast suburbs of Chicago, including Dolton, Calumet City, and South Holland, Illinois, until it joins I-80 on the Kingery Expressway, which finally enters Indiana east of Lansing, Illinois.

The Bishop Ford Freeway in South Holland, approaching exit 73

I-94 has ten lanes (five in each direction) from the exit ramps of the Jane Byrne Interchange to the Stevenson Expressway. It then splits into a 14-lane freeway on the Dan Ryan, with three and four lanes alternating between the local and express lanes in both directions. At the Chicago Skyway, a two-lane ramp carries traffic to I-90, leaving ten lanes (five in each direction) running south to the I-57/I-94 junction.

From I-57, where I-94 is called the Bishop Ford Freeway, to Cottage Grove Avenue, the route has four lanes (two lanes each way), with six lanes (three lanes each way) between Michigan Avenue and Cottage Grove Avenue. The freeway connection ramp to Stony Island Avenue has four lanes (two in each direction). I-94 then has six lanes (three in each direction) south to I-80, where it departs the Bishop Ford Freeway (which continues south as IL 394) for the Kingery Expressway. On these ramps to and from I-80, I-94 has two lanes in each direction. On the Kingery itself, the combined I-80/I-94 route widens to eight lanes (four in each direction) to the Indiana state line.

The section including the Southland Interchange with I-80 and I-294 was reconfigured as part of the Kingery Expressway reconstruction project, completed in 2007, including four lanes south of 159th Street, with the split between I-80 and 94 east to the left, and I-80 west, I-294 north, and IL 394 south on the right located north of the 170th Street overpass. The configuration of I-80 and I-94 is discussed in connection with the Kingery Expressway.

History[]

William G. Edens

I-494 (and later I-694) was originally planned to serve as a loop in Chicago and follow Lake Shore Drive along Lake Michigan. After local opposition prevented I-494 and I-694 from being completed, both numbers were completely dropped. Portions of the old I-494/I-694 exist as US 41 (Lake Shore Drive) and the Ohio Street connector. In addition, I-494 was also planned at one point to be a western bypass of Chicago, as the Crosstown Expressway.

In 1998, the Illinois Tollway removed the entire Deerfield Toll Plaza north of the I-294/I-94 merge point, then considered one of the worst snags on the tollway system. It was replaced with the Huehl Road Toll Plaza on the Edens Spur to charge traffic that followed I-94 into Chicago. Tolls were removed from the northbound exit/southbound entrance to I-294 at Lake Cook Road, while tolls at the Waukegan Toll Plaza were increased, and additional toll plazas were built on exits south of Deerfield at Lake–Cook Road, Willow Road and Golf Road (Illinois Route 58, IL 58). Toll collection facilities were also added to entrance ramps to northbound I-94 at those points.

The Edens Expressway section of I-94 was last rehabilitated from 1978 through 1980.^[3] From 2007 to 2009, I-94 was widened from six to eight lanes between IL 173 (Rosecrans Road) and IL 22 (Half Day Road).^[4]

In 1996, the Calumet Expressway was renamed in honor of Bishop Louis Henry Ford, the leader of the Church of God in Christ who had died the previous year.^[5]

On April 4, 2008, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) closed one lane in each direction for the entire length of the freeway. The closures lasted until August 2008, occurred in advance of patching and resurfacing of the mainline. In addition, the $42.8 million project was to rehabilitate six bridges and improve drainage at four underpasses.^[6]

The Calumet Expressway was originally an extension of Doty Avenue. There were traffic lights at the intersections of Doty with 111th, 115th, and 130th, but interchanges were built in the early 1960s. The expressway was originally designated as IL 1, Alternate US 30, and certain portions as US 6 and IL 83, but IL 1 returned to Halsted Street, and US 6 and IL 83 were routed onto Torrence Avenue. In 1962, the connection between the Calumet Expressway and Dan Ryan Expressway opened, and is now signed as part of the Bishop Ford.

In 2006–07, the portion south of 159th Street was reconstructed as part of the Kingery Expressway-Southland Interchange project. The section between 159th Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive was rehabilitated and resurfaced in mid-to late 2009.^[7]

Exit list[]

County	Location	mi[1]	km	Exit[1]	Destinations	Notes
Lake	Newport Township	0.00	0.00		I-41 north / I-94 west / US 41 north – Milwaukee	Continuation into Wisconsin
		0.56	0.90	1A	(Russell Road)	Signed as exit 1 westbound
		0.96	1.54	1B	US 41 south (Skokie Highway) to IL 173 – Waukegan I-41 ends	Eastern end of I-41/US 41 overlap; northern end of Tri-State Tollway; southern terminus of I-41; eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	Zion	2.36	3.80	2	IL 173 (Rosecrans Road)	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
	Wadsworth	4.90	7.89	Waukegan Toll Plaza
	Gurnee	8.48	13.65	8	IL 132 (Grand Avenue)	Signed as exits 8A (west) and 8B (east)
		10.21	16.43	10	IL 21 (Milwaukee Avenue)	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		11.23	18.07	11	IL 120 (Belvidere Road)	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; signed as exits 11A (east) and 11B (west)
	North Chicago	13.85	22.29	13	IL 137 (Buckley Road)	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance pay toll
	Libertyville	16.11	25.93	16	IL 176 (Rockland Road)	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
	Lake Forest	18.07	29.08	Lake Forest Oasis
		19.03	30.63	19	IL 60 (Town Line Road)	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance pay toll
	Lincolnshire	21.88	35.21	21	IL 22 (Half Day Road)	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance pay toll
	Deerfield	24.31	39.12	24	Deerfield Road	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; no trucks allowed on Deerfield Road east
Lake–Cook county line	Deerfield–Northbrook city line	25.32	40.75	25A	Lake Cook Road	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance pay toll; northbound exit and southbound entrance via I-294
		24.91– 25.58	40.09– 41.17	25B	I-294 Toll south (Tri-State Tollway south) – Indiana, O'Hare	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; northern terminus of I-294; western end of Edens Spur
Cook	Northbrook	26.44	42.55	Edens Spur Toll Plaza[8]
		27.84	44.80	27	IL 43 (Waukegan Road)	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		29.96	48.22	29	US 41 north (Skokie Highway) – Waukegan	Western end of US 41 overlap; westbound exit and eastbound entrance; eastern end of Edens Spur; western end of Edens Expressway
		30.23	48.65	30	IL 68 west (Dundee Road)	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; signed as exits 30A (west) and 30B (east); eastern terminus of IL 68
	Northfield	31.92	51.37	31	Tower Road	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		33.04	53.17	33	Willow Road	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; signed as exits 33A (west) and 33B (east)
	Wilmette	33.95	54.64	34A	US 41 south (Skokie Road)	Eastern end of US 41 overlap; eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		34.58	55.65	34B–C	Lake Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance; signed as exits 34B (west) and 34C (east)
	Skokie	35.84	57.68	35	Old Orchard Road
		37.38	60.16	37	IL 58 (Dempster Street)	Signed to Northwestern University
	Skokie–Lincolnwood city line	39.87	64.16	39	Touhy Avenue	Signed as exits 39A (west) and 39B (east via Cicero Avenue westbound)
	Chicago	41.37	66.58	41A	US 14 west (Caldwell Avenue)	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
				41B	US 14 east (Peterson Avenue)
		41.91	67.45	41C	IL 50 south (Cicero Avenue) to I-90 west / Foster Avenue – O'Hare Field	Eastbound exit
		42.49	68.38	42	Foster Avenue	Westbound exit and entrance; eastbound entrance via Elston Ave
		43.25	69.60	43A	Wilson Avenue
		43.26– 43.37	69.62– 69.80	43B	I-90 west (Kennedy Expressway west) – Rockford, O'Hare	Western end of I-90 overlap; westbound exit and eastbound entrance; western end of reversible express lanes; eastern end of Edens Expressway. Interchange is locally known as the Edens Junction.
		43.55	70.09	43C	Montrose Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		43.81	70.51	43D	Kostner Avenue	Westbound exit
		44.17– 44.40	71.08– 71.45	44A	IL 19 (Irving Park Road) / Keeler Avenue	Eastbound exit and entrance; westbound entrance
		44.40– 44.59	71.45– 71.76	44B	IL 19 (Irving Park Road) / Pulaski Road	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		45.12	72.61	45A	Addison Street
		45.55	73.31	45B	Kimball Avenue
		45.86	73.80	45C	Belmont Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		46.42	74.71	—	Sacramento Avenue	Eastbound entrance
		46.57	74.95	46A	California Avenue	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		46.74	75.22	46B	Diversey Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		47.31– 47.68	76.14– 76.73	47A	Western Avenue / Fullerton Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance via Western Avenue
		47.86	77.02	47B	Damen Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		48.30	77.73	48A	Armitage Avenue
		48.88	78.66	48B	IL 64 (North Avenue)
		49.44	79.57	49A	Division Street
		49.69	79.97	49B	Augusta Boulevard / Milwaukee Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		50.18	80.76	50A	Ogden Avenue	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		50.40	81.11	50B	Ohio Street	Eastern end of reversible express lanes
		50.97	82.03	51A	Lake Street	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		51.05	82.16	51B	Randolph Street west
		51.12	82.27	51C	Washington Boulevard east	Eastbound and westbound exit
		51.22	82.43	51D	Madison Street
		51.31	82.58	51E	Monroe Street	Eastbound exit
		51.40	82.72	51F	Adams Street west	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		51.49	82.87	51G	Jackson Boulevard east	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		51.50– 52.13	82.88– 83.90	51H-I	I-290 / IL 110 (CKC) west (Eisenhower Expressway) / Ida B. Wells Drive east – Aurora, West Suburbs, Chicago Loop	Jane Byrne Interchange; signed as exits 51H (west) and 51I (east); southeastern end of Kennedy Expressway; northern end of Dan Ryan Expressway; eastern termini of I-290/IL 110 (CKC); IBW Drive formerly Congress Parkway
		52.13	83.90	51J	Taylor Street / Roosevelt Road	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		52.35	84.25	52B	Roosevelt Road / Taylor Street	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		53.00	85.30	52C	18th Street	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		53.26	85.71	53A	Canalport Avenue / Cermak Road	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		53.00– 54.82	85.30– 88.22	53B-C	I-55 (Stevenson Expressway) / 22nd Street (Cermak Road) – St. Louis, Lake Shore Drive, Chinatown	Signed separately as exits 53B (south) and 53C (north) westbound, together as exit 53 eastbound; I-55 exits 292 and 293B; 22nd St. signed westbound only; western end of express lanes
		54.94	88.42	54	31st Street
		55.23	88.88	55A	35th Street	Guaranteed Rate Field, Illinois Institute of Technology
		55.76	89.74	55B	Pershing Road	3900 South
		56.22	90.48	56A	43rd Street
		56.75	91.33	56B	47th Street
		57.66	92.79	57	Garfield Boulevard	5500 South
		58.28	93.79	58A	59th Street	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		58.78	94.60	58B	63rd Street	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		58.78– 59.11	94.60– 95.13	59A	I-90 Toll east / Chicago Skyway east to Indiana Toll Road	East end of I-90 overlap; eastbound exit and westbound entrance; eastern end of express lanes
		59.36	95.53	59B	Marquette Road / 67th Street	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		59.87	96.35	59C	71st Street
		60.37	97.16	60A	75th Street	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		60.48	97.33	60B	76th Street	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
		60.86	97.94	60C	79th Street
		61.36	98.75	61A	83rd Street	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
		61.87	99.57	61B	87th Street
62.87		101.18	62	US 12 / US 20 (95th Street)	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
62.87– 63.88		101.18– 102.80		Michigan Avenue	Westbound entrance only
			63	I-57 south – Memphis	Northern terminus of I-57; east end of Dan Ryan Expressway; west end of Bishop Ford Freeway
64.53		103.85	65	Stony Island Avenue to 95th and 103rd Streets	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
65.73		105.78		103rd Street / Stony Island Avenue	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
66.18		106.51	66A	111th Street	Access to Pullman Historic District
66.73		107.39	66B	115th Street
68.67		110.51	68	130th Street – Illinois International Port	Signed as exits 68A (west) and 68B (east)
69.76		112.27	69	Beaubien Woods Forest Preserve	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance
Calumet City	70.62	113.65	70	Dolton Avenue	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; signed as exits 70A (west) and 70B (east)
	71.42	114.94	71	IL 83 (Sibley Boulevard)	Signed as exits 71A (west) and 71B (east)
South Holland	72.96	117.42	73	US 6 (159th Street)	Signed as exits 73A (west) and 73B (east)
South Holland–Thornton Township line	73.97– 74.89	119.04– 120.52	74B	I-80 Toll west / I-294 Toll north (Tri-State Tollway) – Iowa, Wisconsin	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; I-294 exit 0
Thornton Township–Lansing line			74A	IL 394 south (Calumet Expressway) – Danville	No exit number westbound
Lansing	75.62	121.70	161	US 6 west / IL 83 (Torrence Avenue)	Exit number follows I-80 mileage; no westbound exit
	76.51	123.13	—	I-80 Toll west / I-294 Toll north (Tri-State Tollway) – Iowa, Wisconsin US 6 west / IL 83 (Torrence Avenue)	West end of I-80/US 6 overlap; westbound left exit and eastbound left entrance; eastern end of Bishop Ford Freeway; western end of Kingery Expressway; southern terminus of I-294; I-80 exit 160
	77.41	124.58		I-80 east / I-94 east / US 6 east (Borman Expressway) – Toledo, Detroit	Continuation into Indiana; eastern end of Kingery Expressway
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       Incomplete access       Tolled       Route transition

References[]

External links[]

• Historic, Current & Average Travel Times For The Edens Expressway

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Interstate 94 in Illinois.

Route map:

Interstate 94
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