U.S. Route 50 in Illinois


U.S. Route 50 in the state of Illinois is an east–west highway across the southern portion of the state. It runs from the Jefferson Barracks Bridge over the Mississippi River to Missouri east to the Red Skelton Memorial Bridge over the Wabash River to Indiana. This is a distance of.

Route description

US 50 runs east–west across the southern portion of the state, between Interstate 70 to the north and I-64 to the south. Along many portions of US 50, the road has been moved onto either a bypass or an expressway.

History

Much of US 50 in Illinois, especially the section between Carlyle and Vincennes, lies atop or adjacent to the trail taken by George Rogers Clark and his 170 volunteers in the forlorn-hope march on Vincennes in February 1779.
Up until 1935, Illinois Route 12 followed roughly along the old alignment of US 50 from St. Louis to Vincennes, IN. By 1935, IL 12 was decommissioned.
As of 2011, much of US 50 is a two-lane highway, but portions around Lawrenceville and Vincennes are configured as a four-lane, limited access bypass, built to Interstate Highway standards in the 1960s. Another modern bypass portion between O'Fallon and IL 127 shows evidence of a four-lane right of way as each bridge is paralleled by a second that remains unused and the graded road bed for additional lanes is visible.

Major intersections