IL 53 is one of the fewstate highways routed along expressways in the state. Before it becomes an expressway, IL 53 starts out in Long Grove going southwest towards Palatine. South of Lake-Cook Road, IL 53 follows Hicks Road, Rand Road and Dundee Road through Palatine's northeast side before it joins an expressway that starts un-numbered, one mile north at Lake-Cook Rd as a bypass of northeast Palatine. The northeast Palatine stretch goes through the Rand and Dundee intersection, one of the country's deadliest intersections in traffic accidents. It forms the other half of the Interstate 290/IL 53 combination in Schaumburg before being routed west onto Biesterfield Road and back south onto Rohlwing Road. Until its first junction with I-55 by Bolingbrook, it remains a mostly 2 to 4 lane road, largely replaced by the I-290 and I-355 combo. In the suburb of Lombard, IL 53 is called Columbine Avenue. South of the first junction with I-55, IL 53 follows the path of historic Route 66 in Illinois and parallels Interstate 55, entering downtown Joliet, which is about four miles east of I-55. IL 53 also passes directly in front of Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois. From Joliet it follows the original Route 66 alignment to the south. It remains a four-lane divided highway for about, passing through Elwood and the former Joliet Arsenal, part of which is now the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery and Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Route 53 narrows to two lanes just outside Wilmington and crosses the Kankakee River in downtown Wilmington. It then continues southwest through Braidwood and Braceville on its way to Gardner, where it loops around the southern part of town before ending at Main Street.
History
SBI Route 53 ran from Romeoville to Long Grove on Rohlwing Road and Hicks Road from 1924 to 1963. From 1963 through 1970, it was routed onto a new freeway from Addison to Rolling Meadows and cosigned with I-90 until that was changed to I-290. In 1967 IL 53 was extended to Gardner, and in 1995 IL 129 was routed onto IL 53 south of Braidwood. This lasted a year until IL 129 was dropped entirely south of Braidwood. Near the northern end, the freeway was extended from Dundee Road to Lake–Cook Road in 1989. In 1990, with the construction of I-355, IL 53 was moved off the I-290/I-355 combination south of Biesterfield Road and back onto its original alignment. The Illinois Department of Transportation proposed in 1999 to widen IL 53 south of US 20 and generally north of I-88 to a five-lane section. Opposition from a citizen group called NIFTI began to lobby for a smaller expansion plan to three lanes. The road south of Lake Street runs through predominantly residential areas and light industry. The term context sensitive design and solutions was introduced to the state of Illinois through the efforts of this group. For over 40 years, IL 53 had been at the center of a major dispute regarding a northern extension of its freeway segment into Lake County. The studied corridor ran from the current terminus of the freeway at Lake–Cook Road north to a planned bypass for IL 120 near Grayslake. The combined IL 53/IL 120 extension would have formed a large T-shape in the center of Lake County, with the IL 120 bypass carrying through traffic from US 12 to the Tri-State Tollway around Gurnee. The extension was opposed by several organizations, notably the Illinois chapter of the Sierra Club, and many residents of Long Grove, which lies in the path of the highway. The Sierra Club opposed the roadway extension because it would have been routed through wetlands and the group had concerns about suburban sprawl and increased pollution. Due to funding constraints with IDOT, the Illinois General Assembly authorized the Illinois Tollway to plan and construct the IL 53 extension in 1993, and was studied on and off for 25 years. In 2019, the latest study was suspended, effectively cancelling the project.
