Existed: 1924 – present North end: WIS 120 in Hebron Constructed 1924 | South end: IL 10 in Seymour Length 273.2 km | |
 | ||
Counties Champaign County, Illinois, Ford County, Illinois | ||
Illinois Route 47 is a largely rural north–south state highway that runs from the Wisconsin state border at Highway 120 near Hebron, to Illinois Route 10, just south of Interstate 72 near Seymour. This is a distance of 169.76 miles (273.20 km). Even though Route 47 is primarily rural, in several suburbs of Chicago, such as Woodstock, traffic can be congested. Even in heavily rural areas, traffic is heavy.
Contents
Map of IL-47, Illinois, USA
It crosses most Interstate highways in northern and central Illinois, but the largest towns that Illinois 47 serves are Huntley (at the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway), Yorkville (at U.S. Route 34), Woodstock (at U.S. Route 14), Lily Lake at (Illinois Route 64), Elburn (at Illinois Route 38), Sugar Grove (at U.S. Route 30), Morris (at Interstate 80), Dwight (at Interstate 55), Forrest (at U.S. Route 24), Gibson City (at Illinois Route 54), and Mahomet (at Interstate 74).
Route description
Illinois 47 overlaps Illinois Route 72 and U.S. Route 20 at Pingree Grove, a village approximately 60 miles (97 km) from Chicago; this concurrency is part of a so-called wrong-way concurrency, where one can be driving both west on Illinois 72 and east on U.S. 20 at the same time. Route 47 also shares concurrencies with Illinois Route 9 and Illinois 54 in Gibson City, U.S. Route 30 in Sugar Grove, U.S. Route 6 in Morris, Historic U.S. Route 66 in Dwight, and U.S. Route 150 in Mahomet.
In November 2013, a full access interchange opened at I-90 and Illinois 47. This replaced the existing partial access interchange that existed previously.
Future
The Illinois Department of Transportation is proposing to add lanes to several portions of Illinois Route 47, which eventually would make it a 4-lane road from I-80 in Morris to I-88 in Sugar Grove, and from I-90 in Huntley to north of Woodstock. A project to reconstruct the road to 4 lanes from Kreutzer Road to Reed Road through Huntley was completed in October 2011. The Prairie Parkway study included engineering for 4 lanes from I-80 in Morris to Caton Farm Road south of Yorkville, and construction was underway of this section as of 2015. Engineering studies are underway for sections of Illinois Route 47 from Caton Farm Road to Illinois 71 in Yorkville, from Kennedy Road in Yorkville to US 30 in Sugar Grove, and from Charles Road to US 14 in Woodstock. A project providing additional lanes from Illinois 71 to Kennedy Road in Yorkville was completed in 2015.
In addition, an engineering study has been started by the village of Sugar Grove to reconstruct the I-88 interchange with Illinois Route 47 to full access. Currently, there is no eastbound access or westbound entrance at I-88.