IDOT unveils major Route 53 upgrade from Joliet to Wilmington

State highway officials last week laid out plans for modernizing Illinois Route 53, one of the most controversial roadways in Will County.

Route 53 in Joliet is a major truck corridor through the city, providing a pathway for semitrailers to and from the intermodal yards in Joliet and Elwood. Residential opposition to more trucks on Route 53 led to the construction of the Houbolt Road toll bridge and to a NorthPoint Development plan to design an industrial park with a bridge over the highway to bypass it when the developer builds future warehouses in Joliet.

The Illinois Department of Transportation on Thursday hosted an open house and public hearing to present its plans for Route 53 from Joliet to Wilmington and collect public input on what needs to be done.

“This is needed for safety,” Steven Schilke, IDOT bureau chief of programming, said in an interview at the open house. “We’re basically cleaning up a 1940s design.”

IDOT plans recognize the increased traffic and dangers on Route 53 with the designed improvements.

Schilke said work on Route 53 could be two or three years away as the state negotiates land purchases for planned lane expansions.

“It all depends on land acquisitions,” Schilke said. “It will likely be done in stages.”

A key element of the plan is to provide exit lanes for the turnaround cuts in the highway. The divided four-lane highway is lined with cuts motorists can use to turn around if needed. But most don’t have lanes that provide a safe area for motorists to slow down while preparing to turn around.

That would change with the Route 53 plan.

The plan also includes major changes for the area around Nowell Park, a major Joliet park that sits along Route 53.

The IDOT plan cuts off Route 53 access to Doris Avenue at the north end of the park, where there is no left-turn lane. Access to the park would remain at Mills Road, which is the access point for the Nowell Park Recreation Center, a popular indoor facility that the Joliet Park District opened in 2018.

The plan includes a roundabout at Mills and U.S. Route 52, an intersection east of Route 53 that provides another entryway to the Nowell Park Recreation Center. Schilke said the roundabout is considered an improvement over the existing four-way stop that now sits at an angle.

While warehouse development plans along Route 53 in Joliet have stirred a public outcry over truck traffic in recent years, only a handful of people spoke at the public hearing for the improvement plan.

They included Alsie Kirkland, who has lived in the Preston Heights area in Joliet Township along Route 53 since 1963. Kirkland said eight people have been killed in traffic accidents in that stretch since he has been there.

Kirkland said the IDOT plan appears to provide more help for truckers than for residents.

“The plan I’m looking at does not help us a lot,” Kirkland said. “It helps the truckers get in and out.”

Also commenting at the public hearing was Dominic Orlando, a member of the Joliet Plan Commission, who has questioned warehouse expansion plans.

“The problem is going to be Millsdale Road,” Orlando said, pointing to an area where NorthPoint Development has proposed building a bridge over Route 53 to keep trucks off the highway in what the developer has described as “closed loop” road system.

“I don’t think the closed loop is going to resolve any problems,” Orlando said.