Kingery Expressway


The Robert Kingery Expressway, formerly called the Tri-State Highway, is a three-mile-long, eight-lane freeway in northeastern Illinois. It carries Interstates 80 and 94 from the Illinois/Indiana border at the Borman Expressway west to Illinois Route 394, Interstate 294, and the southern end of the Bishop Ford Freeway. It also carries U.S. Route 6 west from the Indiana state line to the U.S. 6 exit with Illinois Route 83.

Route description

The Kingery Expressway begins at an interchange with the Tri-State Tollway to the west, the Bishop Ford Freeway to the north, and Illinois Route 394 to the south. From here, the expressway heads east through Lansing. The highway then reaches its only exit, a junction with Illinois Route 83 and U.S. Route 6; east of here, US 6 becomes concurrent with the expressway. Past the exit, the highway continues east; it briefly curves east-southeast before crossing into Indiana and becoming the Borman Expressway.

History

The Kingery Expressway was built in 1950. The highway was renamed the Kingery Expressway in 1953, two years after the death of Robert Kingery. He was a former director of the Illinois Public Works, a regional director for the Chicago Regional Planning Association, as well as a proponent of the current northeastern Illinois tollway configuration until his death in 1951. The expressway was rebuilt in 2005-2007 to add traffic lanes and better accommodate the large amount of truck traffic that travels between Chicago and all points east and southeast. Construction was completed in July 2007. Among the improvements is the separation of traffic heading to the Bishop Ford Freeway and Torrence Avenue, with the westbound split for the Bishop Ford east of Torrence near Burnham Avenue, and an eastbound collector-distributor lane allowing a right hand exit from either I-80 or I-94 eastbound to Torrence without having to cross expressway through lanes. The Southland Interchange with the Bishop Ford Freeway, Illinois 394, and the Tri-State Tollway was also rebuilt and reconfigured.

Exit list