U.S. Route 50 in Illinois

U.S. Route 50
Route information
Maintained by IDOT
Length:	165.79 mi[1] (266.81 km)
Existed:	1926 – present
Major junctions
West end:	US 50 / I-255 in Columbia
	I-64 / I-255 in Washington Park I-64 / IL 158 in O'Fallon US 51 in Sandoval I-57 in Salem US 45 in Flora
East end:	US 50 in Lawrenceville
Highway system
United States Numbered Highway System List Bannered Divided Replaced Illinois State Highway System Interstate U.S. State Tollways ← IL 49 IL 50 →

In the U.S. state of Illinois, U.S. Route 50 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 165.79 miles (266.81 km).^[1]

Route description

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

History

Much of U.S. Route 50 in Illinois, especially the section between Carlyle, Illinois 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.

As of 2011, much of U.S. 50 is a two-lane highway, but portions around Lawrenceville, IL and Vincennes, IN are configured as a four-lane, limited access bypass, built to interstate standards in the 1960s. Another modern bypass portion between O'Fallon, IL 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. This is because it was originally meant to be the route of Interstate 64 until political leaders lobbied for and secured a more southerly route.

Major intersections

County	Location	mi	km	Destinations	Notes
Mississippi River		0.00	0.00	I-255 / US 50 continuation into Missouri
Monroe	​			IL 3 south	Southern end of IL 3 concurrency
St. Clair	​			IL 3 north – Cahokia	Northern end of IL 3 concurrency
	​			IL 157
	East St. Louis			IL 15
				I-64 west / I-255 north – St. Louis, Chicago	Northern end of I–255 concurrency; western end of I–64 concurrency
	Fairview Heights			IL 157
				IL 159
	O'Fallon			I-64 east / IL 158	Eastern end of I–64 concurrency
	Lebanon			IL 4 south – Mascoutah	Southern end of IL 4 concurrency
				IL 4 north	Northern end of IL 4 concurrency
Clinton	Trenton			IL 160
	Carlyle			IL 127 north	Northern end of IL 127 concurrency
				IL 127 south	Southern end of IL 127 concurrency
Marion	Sandoval			US 51 – Centralia, Vandalia
	Salem			I-57 – Mt. Vernon, Effingham
				IL 37 – Mt. Vernon, Effingham
Clay	Flora			US 45 north – Effingham	Western end of US 45 concurrency
				US 45 south – Fairfield	Eastern end of US 45 concurrency
Richland	​			IL 250 east	Western terminus of IL 250
	Olney			IL 130
				IL 250 west	Western end of IL 250 concurrency
Lawrence	​			IL 250 east	Eastern end of IL 250 concurrency
	Lawrenceville			US 50 Bus. east	Western terminus of US 50 BUS
				IL 1 – Lawrenceville, Marshall
				US 50 Bus. west	Eastern terminus of US 50 BUS
	​			IL 33 north	Southern terminus of IL 33
	​			US 50 east	Indiana state line
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus

References

Route map: Bing / Google

1. Illinois Technology Transfer Center (2007). "T2 GIS Data". Retrieved 2007-11-08.