Ask Jim: Was I-90 supposed to come through downtown Rockford?

Ask Jim is a Register Star series where you get to ask the questions about Rockford, and reporter Jim Hagerty will do his best to answer them. So what are you curious about? Send your questions to jhagerty@ rrstar.com.

Question: Can you give (us) the timeline of events that took place back in the fifties regarding the interstate highway that President Eisenhower initiated? I understand that Rockford was supposed to have (an) interstate pass through the heart of the city. The city fathers choose not to do that, thus the downtown died because all retail and related services moved toward the highway. It was a huge mistake, to say the least. — Richard and Mary Ann Disch, Rockford

Answer: This has been a topic of conversation, and debate, that has continued to come up in my nearly 30 years in Rockford.

Before I moved here in 1995, I had been to Rockford twice as a child, in 1980 and 1982. On both occasions, we exited off of Interstate 90 and got a bite at east-side restaurants.

To this day, when this topic comes up, I think of those childhood trips and how the interstate did not take us anywhere near the heart of the city. And depending on to whom I speak, the reason always varies.

What we know about the I-90 plan

I-90 was established by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The portion that was finished in 1958 and cuts through southern Wisconsin and dips across greater Rockford and Chicago was named the Northwest Tollway (now the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway).

Steve Ernst, retired traffic engineer for the city of Rockford and former director of Rockford Metropolitan Agency for Planning (now Region 1 Planning Council), has a wealth of knowledge on the subject and spent a ton of time on it during his 36-year career.

According to Ernst, the interstate wasn't placed where it is by mistake. There were discussions, meetings, and hearings about the possibility of it coming through downtown, but not everyone was on board.

“I believe that there were two main arguments against the downtown routing that ultimately placed I-90 in its current location—the negative effects on the neighborhoods caused by the construction and the belief that there would be urban blight because of the construction and traffic operations of an interstate-level highway facility: noise, dirt, air pollutants, etc.,” Ernst said.

The second argument centers on what Rockford residents may not know about the planning process.

“The highway facility was being proposed as a tollway and not a freeway,” he said. "I think this fact is often overlooked. Every other downstate community in Illinois that was being proposed as part of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Interstate (Highway) System was getting a freeway while Rockford was the only community outside of metro Chicago that had to pay tolls.”

Ernst added that Rockford officials were working with the Illinois Department of Transportation to bring a high-level, access-controlled highway through downtown as far back as the 1940s, well before the President Eisenhower proposed the interstate system.

But, once the Federal-Aid Highway Act was passed, it was decided that the far-east end of Rockford was better suited for a tollway.

“I believe that the tollway vs. freeway was as important, if not more influential, than the neighborhood concern,” Ernst said.

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Thank you for the question, Richard and Mary Ann.

Now I have a question for all of you. I am hoping someone can help me with an inquiry I received about a giant tree on Rockford's southwest side.

Local resident Rick Serola said the tree once stood in a yard that's now a vacant lot on West Street, in the area of the old Washington Middle School.

Does anyone else remember this tree? Serola says it was massive, standing twice the height of houses and that "you could see it blocks away."

Serola is wondering what kind of tree it was, and now I'm curious, too. Let me know if you remember it.

Send questions, comments, and suggestions to jhagerty@rrstar.com. Please include "ASK JIM" in the subject line.

Jim Hagerty covers general news, schools, and courts. Contact him at jhagerty@rrstar.com and @jimhagerty.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: I-90 and downtown Rockford traffic: Latest edition of 'Ask Jim'