US Highway 124

At the creation of the US Highway System, there were numerous spur routes that were both less than 300 miles long, and existed in only one state.

One of these was US Highway 124, which ran between Peoria and Biggsville, IL. Part of the original list of US Highways in 1926, it was just 80 miles in length. 

It connected with US Highway 34 west of Biggsville, heading south before turning due east along present-day IL-116 to serve Peoria, ending at its parent, US Highway 23. The US Highway designation for the road would last just until 1937.

The route was easily incorporated into Illinois' state highway system in 1938, with the majority being present-day Illinois Route 116.

Image: Michael Summa via USEnds.

The entirety of US-124 from the Illinois 1937 Highway Map.


While this highway was among the first to be removed from the system, there would be many more deletions from the system, especially after the Interstate Highway System came into existence. A rule was codified by AASHTO in 1991, to remove all US Routes that are less than 300 miles in length, or run within just one state, and has been an ongoing process since the development of individual state highway systems. Nonetheless, there are still many examples of short US Highways that run within a single state that do not conform to this rule, such as US Highway 211.



Thanks as always for reading!




Location: Peoria, IL, USA

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