IL: I-74/I-80/I-280 Interchange

[Markkos1992]

Highway 63, did you notice during the Quad Cities Meet weekend that there are actually no exit numbers at this interchange?

Therefore, I propose the following:

I-80: 10>-I-74/280
I-74: 14>-I-80
I-280: Fine as-is as it already is labeled as plain I-80
IL 110:  I-74(14)>-I-74/80

[yakra]

Oh boy. Reminds me of NH.
Both of I-93's junctions with I-293 and I-89 are unnumbered.
Additionally, I-293 Exit 3 is unposted for no good reason.
Should probably fix that.

[Markkos1992]

I forgot to include IL 110 originally.

[si404]

Oh boy. Reminds me of NH.
Both of I-93's junctions with I-293 and I-89 are unnumbered.

Seems the French have rubbed off on the French-Americans.

The French (normally) only give exit numbers if you can leave the Autoroute network. As you can't leave the interstate network at these interchanges on I-93 they don't get exit numbers as they aren't exits.

[dave1693]

Oh boy. Reminds me of NH.
Both of I-93's junctions with I-293 and I-89 are unnumbered.

Seems the French have rubbed off on the French-Americans.

The French (normally) only give exit numbers if you can leave the Autoroute network. As you can't leave the interstate network at these interchanges on I-93 they don't get exit numbers as they aren't exits.

This was very typical of sequential-exit-numbered US Interstates in earlier days (in particular the 1970s, before I had a driver's license).

[yakra]

Seems that Exit 15 existed before I-393 did.
Meanwhile, across the river, I-91 has an exit number for I-89 but not vice versa. No idea why on that one.

[osu-lsu]

Oh boy. Reminds me of NH.
Both of I-93's junctions with I-293 and I-89 are unnumbered.

Seems the French have rubbed off on the French-Americans.

The French (normally) only give exit numbers if you can leave the Autoroute network. As you can't leave the interstate network at these interchanges on I-93 they don't get exit numbers as they aren't exits.

This was very typical of sequential-exit-numbered US Interstates in earlier days (in particular the 1970s, before I had a driver's license).

I'm pretty sure PennDOT didn't number exits between interstates, prior to their conversion to mileage based, at the beginning of this millennium.

[bhemphill]

Illinois says that I-74 and I-80 each go straight through that interchange, although officially both turn there.  It comes up in the news every so often that they ask Iowa about resigning it.

[Highway63]

The Iowa AND Illinois maps mark this interchange as I-80 exit 10 and I-74 exit 14. I think it's pretty obvious from context, and suddenly switching from numbers to "I-74" doesn't make sense.

It has been enshrined in Iowa law for 30 years that the interstate designations in the Quad Cities cannot be changed, ever.

[Markkos1992]

The Iowa AND Illinois maps mark this interchange as I-80 exit 10 and I-74 exit 14. I think it's pretty obvious from context, and suddenly switching from numbers to "I-74" doesn't make sense.

It has been enshrined in Iowa law for 30 years that the interstate designations in the Quad Cities cannot be changed, ever.

Ok, since they are on the Illinois DOT Map as you stated, we can leave things as-is here.

I remember us talking about the Iowa law at that meet.  It disgusts me that they would have basically nixed the renumbering idea instead of having a reasonable discussion with Illinois DOT and Iowa DOT on the matter.

[dave1693]

Oh boy. Reminds me of NH.
Both of I-93's junctions with I-293 and I-89 are unnumbered.

Seems the French have rubbed off on the French-Americans.

The French (normally) only give exit numbers if you can leave the Autoroute network. As you can't leave the interstate network at these interchanges on I-93 they don't get exit numbers as they aren't exits.

This was very typical of sequential-exit-numbered US Interstates in earlier days (in particular the 1970s, before I had a driver's license).

I'm pretty sure PennDOT didn't number exits between interstates, prior to their conversion to mileage based, at the beginning of this millennium.

I'm quite sure they did not, back when they numbered exits sequentially... or even further back when they didn't number exits at all! 

[bhemphill]

I remember us talking about the Iowa law at that meet.  It disgusts me that they would have basically nixed the renumbering idea instead of having a reasonable discussion with Illinois DOT and Iowa DOT on the matter.

I seem to remember that it did start out with the two DOTs talking.  I think some of the concern with why to do it was how many accidents there were each year at the Big X (the I-80/I-74/I-280 interchange) and to a lesser extent the Big Y (I-80/I-280).  Proposals for lettered suffixes were dismissed in that those had been done away with in the 1970's.  There were also concerns about the I-280 section flooding and being closed in places every few years and not wanting to send all of the would be I-80 traffic over current I-74 through town when that happened.  When the I-80 eastbound bridge closed for repair concerns, I heard about people taking 3-4 hours to get from I-80 to I-280 through town on I-74 the first day which in part was due to one lane on the I-74 bridge being closed in addition to all the extra traffic.

So it started out being somewhat rational discussion.  Then somebody spouted off that Iowa needed to hurry up and agree to the changes so that businesses could move to Illinois in order to stay on I-80 and bring the sales, gas, hotel, and income tax revenue to Illinois.  After that, the law was quickly put into place as politicians were motivated.

After renumbering ideas were nixed, both DOTs agreed to have engineers evaluate the interchanges and suggest safety improvements.  Some of the ramps ended up being lengthened, widened, and banked differently.  Those changes decreased the number of cars sliding off the ramps in the rain, snow, and ice as well as reducing the number of semis that tipped over.  So in the end the rationality of looking into and fixing some problems with the interchanges for safety did happen.