Lake Street (Chicago)

Lake Street is an west–east street in Chicago and its suburbs. Part of Lake Street is designated as U.S. Route 20. Lake Street begins at the eastern terminus of the Elgin Bypass around Elgin and travels east and slightly south to the Chicago suburbs. It ends in the city of Chicago, where U.S. 20 once was routed west through downtown Chicago onto Torrence Avenue. This is a distance of about 34.4 miles (55.4 km).[1]

Lake Street

200 North (in the Loop) General Ulysses S. Grant Highway
Maintained by	IDOT and CDOT
Length	34.4 mi[1] (55.4 km)
West end	US 20 / Elgin Bypass at Villa Street in Elgin
East end	Downtown Chicago at Upper Stetson Avenue

Route description

The Green Line elevated tracks run above Lake Street in Chicago. April 2002

Lake street begins at the end on the Elgin Bypass and intersection of Shales Pkwy and Bluff City Blvd. US 20 comes from the Elgin bypass onto Lake St. It then crosses the Canadian National Railway and has a traffic light with a suburban road. It then gradually climbs a hill and has another traffic light with car dealerships on the left side when facing east. It then passes by some residential areas and has an interchange with Illinois Route 59 (IL 59). After passing thorugh more residential areas and some warehouses, it crosses under the Metra's Milwaukee District West Line and meets the current western end of Illinois Route 390 (IL 390). After passing though more residential areas and shops, it enters Bloomingdale. Passing by shops ad gas stations, along with going through a forest, and passsing by warehouses, it meets I-355.[1]

Chicago Transit Authority signal tower 18 guides elevated Chicago 'L' north and southbound Purple and Brown lines intersecting with east and westbound Pink and Green lines and the looping Orange line above the Wells and Lake street intersection in the loop.

Continuing east, Lake Street passes by shopping centers along with more residential areas while paralleling the Eisenhower expressway. Lake street has a lot of traffic lights while in Addison. and crosses over the Salt Creek and Illinois Route 83 (IL 83). Since a portion of Lake Street in Elmhurst has been replaced by the Eisenhower Expressway, US 20 runs on the Eisenhower for 0.97 mi (1.56 km), Lake St. continues on across from the interstate and US 20 continues on with I-290 and finds an exit to Lake st. It ends again before being continued on another ramp leading to its continuation in Stone Park.[1]

In Stone Park, Lake Street runs concurrent with US 20 and passes by more shopping centers. At Mannheim Road, Eastbound U.S. 20 turns south with U.S. Routes 12 and 45. It continues east of Mannheim Road after US 20 leaves. It then crosses over the Union Pacific Railroad and it passes by more residential areas and has an intersection with Illinois Route 171 (IL 171). It turns east and parallels the Union Pacific Railroad. It intersects Illinois Route 43 (IL 43) and Illinois Route 50 (IL 50).[1] [2]

In South Austin, it ends crosses under the Union Pacific and continues southeast with the CTA tracks in the middle. It passes through Garfield Park and continues east toward downtown Chicago. It crosses railroad tracks and the CTA tracks then elevate as they are part of the Chicago "L" system. It intersects major streets in Chicago and has a partial interchange with the Kennedy Expressway and Interstates 90 and 94. It then continues east and ends at Stetson Avenue.[1]

History

Most of Lake Street was once marked as U.S. 20.[3] In 1938, U.S. 20 was moved onto Mannheim Road and La Grange Road. The remaining segment of Lake Street became City U.S. 20.[4] In 1960, it was renamed to Business U.S. 20.[5] In 1968, all designations were dropped from Lake Street east of Mannheim Road.[6][7]

Major intersections

County	Location	mi[8][9]	km	Destinations	Notes
Cook	Elgin	0.0	0.0	US 20 west (Elgin Bypass)	Western terminus
				Shales Parkway
	Bartlett	1.8	2.9	IL 59 (Sutton Road)	Interchange
DuPage	Hanover Park	5.7	9.2	IL 390 (Elgin-O'Hare Tollway)	I-PASS only interchange; current IL 390 terminus
	Addison	11.7	18.8	I-355 (Veterans Memorial Tollway) to I-290 (Eisenhower Expressway)	Interchange
	Medinah	11.9	19.2	IL 53 (Rohlwing Road)
	Elmhurst–Addison line	15.6	25.1	IL 83 (Kingery Highway) to I-290 (Eisenhower Expressway)	Interchange
	Elmhurst	17	27	US 20 east / I-290 (Eisenhower Expressway)	Interchange; eastern end of US 20 concurrency (western segment)
		Gap in route
		18.9	30.4	I-290 (Eisenhower Expressway) / US 20 west	Eastbound US 20 (Lake Street) entrance only; western end of US 20 concurrency (eastern segment)
Cook	Northlake	19	31	I-294 north (Tri-State Tollway)	Northbound I-294 entrance only
	Stone Park	20.8	33.5	US 20 east / US 12 / US 45 (Mannheim Road)	Eastern end of US 20 concurrency
	Maywood	23.4	37.7	IL 171 (1st Avenue)
	Oak Park–River Forest line	24.9	40.1	IL 43 (Harlem Avenue)
	Chicago	28.3	45.5	IL 50 (North Cicero Avenue)
		33.3	53.6	I-90 / I-94 east (Kennedy Expressway)	Westbound I-90/I-94 exit; eastbound I-90/I-94 entrance
		34.4	55.4	North Upper Stetson Avenue	Eastern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       Electronic toll collection       Incomplete access

References

1. Google Maps estimate.
2. Illinois Technology Transfer Center (2006). "T2 GIS Data". Archived from the original on August 10, 2007. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
3. Illinois Secretary of State; Rand McNally (1936). Road Map Illinois (Map). [c. 1:950,000 and c. 1:1,110,000]. Springfield: Illinois Secretary of State – via Illinois Digital Archives.
4. Illinois Secretary of State; Rand McNally (1939). Illinois Road Map (Map) (1939–1940 ed.). c. 1:918,720. Springfield: Illinois Secretary of State – via Illinois Digital Archives.
5. Illinois Division of Highways; H.M. Gousha (1960). Illinois Official Highway Map (Map). [1:790,00]. Springfield: Illinois Division of Highways – via Illinois Digital Archives.
6. Carlson, Rich (May 29, 2007). "Routes 1 thru 20:". Retrieved September 19, 2007.
7. Illinois Division of Highways (1968). Illinois Official Highway Map (Map). [1:772,500]. Springfield: Illinois Division of Highways – via Illinois Digital Archives.
8. "Lake Street (Chicago-Elmhurst)".
9. "Lake Street (Elmhurst-Elgin)".