Bishop Ford Freeway
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| Formerly the Calumet Expressway | |
| Route information | |
| Maintained by Illinois Department of Transportation | |
| Length: | 10 mi (16.09 km) |
| Existed: | 1963 – present |
| Major junctions | |
| South end: |     I-80 / I-94 / I-294 / IL 394 in Thornton |
 US 6 in South Holland IL 83 in Dolton |
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| North end: |  I-57 / I-94 (Dan Ryan Expy) in Chicago |
| Highway system | |
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Main route of the Interstate Highway System |
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The Bishop Ford Freeway, formerly known as the Calumet Expressway, is a portion of Interstate 94 in northeastern Illinois, south of downtown Chicago. It runs from Interstate 57 south to the intersection with Interstate 80, Interstate 294 (Tri-State Tollway) and Illinois Route 394. The Bishop Ford constitutes 10 of the 77 miles (16 of 124 km) that Interstate 94 runs in Illinois.
This South Side highway is named for Chicago religious activist Bishop Louis Henry Ford, the former presiding bishop of the 8.5 million member Church of God in Christ. He spent 40 years preaching in the city of Chicago before dying at the age of 81 in 1995.
The Bishop Ford is the only freeway-grade, toll-free road in the Chicago area that is referred to as "Freeway." All of the others (Dan Ryan, Kennedy, Edens, Stevenson, Eisenhower, Elgin-O'Hare, Kingery, and Borman) are called "Expressway," even though there is little or no difference in the quality of the road between the Bishop Ford and the others—calling them "Expressway" is merely a Chicago colloquialism to which the Bishop Ford is the lone exception (likely due to the alliterative value of using "Freeway" instead of "Expressway" following a word beginning with the letter "F").
The Bishop Ford turns into the Dan Ryan Expressway to the north, and the Kingery Expressway to the east of the Tri-State Tollway.
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[edit] History
The Calumet Expressway was originally an extension of Doty Avenue. There were traffic lights at the intersections of Doty with 111th, 115th, and 130th, but interchanges were built in the early 1960s. The expressway was originally designated as Illinois 1, Alternate U.S. 30, and certain portions as U.S. 6 and Illinois 83, but Illinois 1 returned to Halsted Street, and U.S. 6 and Illinois 83 were routed onto Torrence Avenue. In 1962, the connection between the Calumet Expressway and Dan Ryan Expressway opened, and is now signed as part of the Bishop Ford.
In 2006-2007, the portion south of 159th Street was reconstructed as part of the Kingery Expressway-Southland Interchange project. The section between 159th Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. drive was rehabilitated and resurfaced in Summer and Fall 2009[1].
[edit] Lingo
- The Steel Bridge is a common reference to the steel truss bridge over the Calumet River in Dolton.
[edit] Exit list
See Interstate 94 in Illinois for exits on the Bishop Ford Freeway.
