Talk:Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of the U.S. Roads WikiProject, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to roads in the United States. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
Topics	Interstate Highways Illinois State Routes
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale. (add assessment comments)
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the importance scale.
	This article needs a map. Please work with the Maps task force to create and add a map to this article.
	An editor has suggested that this article should be merged with another.

	Chicago Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Chicago, which aims to improve all articles related to Chicago.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.

	This article is part of WikiProject Illinois, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Illinois on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page to join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
Stub	This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the quality scale.
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the importance scale.

Actually, the East-West Tollway was built to Dixon.. and then an access connector was built to U.S. Route 30 EAST of Sterling, IL (that exit is still there).

The second phase was construction of a southern by-pass of Sterling/Rock Falls - that also crossed the Rock River. The road terminated here for a few years, and old state route 2 provided a connector to U.S. Route 30 on the WEST side of Rock Falls/Sterling.

• Iowa had hoped that Illinois would provide a connector from this interchange to Clinton, IA via Morrison (Highway 30) - to match-up with their 4-lane and route improvements in Clinton and west to Hwy. 61.

The last section is not tollway - but state funded from this intersection west of Rock Falls/Sterling to Interstate 80. An interesting tale of poor Illinois highway construction (and numerous legal proceedings). This 35 mile section of the concrete road had to be completely rebuilt (down to new roadbed and proper drainage) over the past 7 years.

The Rock Falls Sterling to Quad Cities section:

• No major city along this linkage (route travels south of Morrison, IL)
• Parallels an old Rock Island railroad branch line to Rock Falls (old roadbed can be seen in some sections south of highway right of way) - parts of this are now set aside for natural prairie.
• Old IL State Route 2 largely followed this route - and was co-signed in one section with IL SR-5 for a few years.
• Section of highway crosses a glacial fill area (Illinoisan glacier - 100,000 years ago) - that is 700 feet deep (to bedrock) and deepest point. This is the ancient Mississippi river bed from Bureau County to Quad Cities area - when Mississippi followed the Illinois River valley south of Princeton area
• Only 2 interchanges (SR-78) abut in middle of section.
• Rock River stays south of the route -- but many smaller creeks and drainages cross route that empty into the Rock River.