The Abandoned Route 66 in McCook, IL

Route 66, the iconic "Main Street of America," weaves through the heart of the United States, connecting communities and embodying the spirit of adventure. However, not all sections of this historic highway have stood the test of time. While much of the former US 66 is drivable in one way or another, especially in Illinois, there are some parts are not. 

One of the first such roadblocks for would-be travelers heading from Chicago to Los Angeles via the Mother Road, now known as Joliet Road, comes just outside of Chicago in McCook, IL, where the former highway is closed between 55th St and East Ave, and has been for over two decades. (Link to the location on our Ghost Towns Map)
Image: Google Maps at 55th and Joliet Rd in McCook, IL
The land that the quarry would eventually take over was part of Stinson Airport in the early days of Route 66, dating back to before 1930. (Abandoned Airports map).

1938 USGS Aerial Imagery

The quarrying on the south side of the road would force the airport's closure in 1958, when quarrying began on that site as well, leaving both sides of Joliet Road exposed.

In 1998, cracks began developing in the roadway, and rapidly grew into pavement buckling. IDOT was forced to close the road, making traffic have to detour onto arterial streets. On either side of the roadbed, Vulcan Materials Company owned the land and mined the area, in some cases hundreds of feet deep, causing the land under the road to give way. 

Image: Rich Dinkela

The cost of rebuilding the road to a safe condition would have cost $45 million and may not have been enough to solve the problem for good. IDOT instead chose to upgrade 55th St and East Ave and have traffic permanently use those roads to traverse through the detour, leaving this section of the Mother Road closed, and likely for perpetuity.
Today the road is still there, although Mother Nature is quickly taking it back, and the mine is still fully operational on both sides. Vulcan paid a $12 Million settlement after a 12 year legal battle, but did not admit fault in the road's closure.

At least on one occasion, the road has been used for filming, as it was in a short scene in the movie Source Code.

Image: The Movie District

Despite the encroaching industrial landscape, nature has found a way to reclaim its territory. Overgrown vegetation peeks through cracks in the asphalt, and wildflowers bloom in the midst of forgotten pavement. The resilience of nature serves as a stark contrast to the man-made scars left by the quarries, creating a unique blend of beauty and decay. While the road today is now owned by Vulcan and off-limits, that hasn't stopped Rich Dinkela from taking a drone to assess the closure for himself, as you can see below.

While the historical significance of Route 66 makes this more of a unique situation regarding a road's closure, I think the right decision to keep it closed off was made. The detour around the quarry using 55th Street and East Avenues works well enough, and with re-timed traffic signals, one can pass the area without realizing one piece of the road network is no longer viable.

A bit farther down the road, some more abandoned Route 66 history exists in Illinois as current Route 129. You can also check out Images of America: Route 66 in Illinois on Amazon (Clicking the link may earn the website a commission)

Thanks as always for reading!

Location: 5500 Joliet Rd, McCook, IL 60525, USA

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 24, 2018 at 2:27 AM

    605 ILCS 5/4-512

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJanuary 15, 2019 at 11:14 AM

    Should pay to fix it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. DavidJanuary 15, 2019 at 12:02 PM

    They paid a settlement instead.

    https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2010-05-18-ct-met-vulcan-idot-settlement-20100518-story.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bill ADecember 16, 2019 at 6:46 PM

    Back in the 70s as part of a tour across the country, I bicycled Route 66 from Chicago to Oklahoma City. I drive through Dwight, Illinois every summer, and part of the original 66 with grass growing through it is still there.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Underwater Water Slide: Fly Over at Durinrell TikiBad

Image
Have you ever wished to experience being transferred from one pool of liquid to another via a pipe? Had you visited the Dutch water park known as Durinrell , also known as Tikibad before 2010, you would have had the chance. Half water slide, half war crime, this was a unique water slide that was filled to the brim with water, leaving riders completely submerged throughout the journey. Image:  XtremeRidesNL Known as the Fly Over was an underwater water slide, which is exactly how it sounds, and transported riders from one pool to another using the water as propulsion. Built in 1994, riders dove underwater to access the slide, using gravity to transport them upwards via the Communicating Vessels Principle . Riders would be completely underwater for about 15-20 seconds. This is how I imagine those 15-20 seconds felt like while riding the slide. The slide was built to drain water in five seconds or less in case a rider got stuck in the slide or had a medical emergency, but the threat tha
Read more

Railroad Vocabulary: A List of Words and Phrases Used in the Industry - Updated February 2024

Image
As somebody who enjoyed watching trains, but was not an employee of the railroad industry ( at least growing up ), when I would interact with railfans and historians, there was often a lot of technical jargon that applied only to the railroad industry thrown back and forth that made it difficult for a newcomer to understand what they were talking about. For example, what is a dinky? It's actually a passenger train. This non-inclusive language seems to keep the loop closed to members of the community, and to uncouple (no pun intended) that technical jargon and help make it easier for people to communicate with people in the industry, I am creating a list of railroad vocabulary that I'm hoping will make the industry more transparent.  BNSF 2361 . Image: Matt Flores While I ultimately believe that such technical jargon has no place outside of perhaps technical communications between employees, I know quite well that I alone am not going to stop people from communicating in a non-i
Read more

Choum Tunnel: The Monument to European Stupidity in Africa

Image
Scars of European colonization are located all across Africa, although some are more obscure and strange than others. With that in mind we come to the Choum Tunnel , built in Mauritania when it was controlled by the French. At first glance, it seems like an ordinary railway tunnel, however, one look at the local geography and you'll find yourself asking what its builders were possibly thinking with creating the project. Choum Tunnel in Mauritania. Unknown photographer. The Mauritania Railway was being built in the early 1960s, and was planned to connect Nouadhibou to Zouérat to exploit the iron ore reserves at Zouérat. That route still exists today in largely its original state, with the exception of the tunnel. Image: Ammar Hassan via Atlas Obscura The easiest route required running a short section of track through the then-Spanish controlled Western Sahara , but rather than pay Spain for the land and other concessions, the French engineers instead chose to tunnel under a hill sp
Read more