News

Effort made to preserve Springfield-area section of Route 66

Posted October 01, 2007 11:00 pm

Time Landis

Route 66 preservationists are scrambling to get a local section of the highway listed on a national register of historic sites out of concern that the vintage 1921 road could be paved over.

The 1.3-mile section between East Lake Shore Drive and New City Road also is thought by the group to be one of longest drivable sections of Route 66 remaining in Illinois.

"This is a road used daily by the public, and that's the good and bad of it," said John Weiss, a Route 66 author and preservationist with the Illinois Route 66 Association.

The narrow pavement - 16 feet wide vs. 24 feet for a modern two-lane highway - is moon-surface rough in spots after years of patching and is on a tentative 2009 Sangamon County schedule for widening and repaving.

Weiss said the association has contacted the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which would have to submit a formal application to the National Register of Historic Places. The association is trying to get on the December agenda for a process that takes months, he said.

"We have a small window of opportunity to present it," Weiss said.

Historic-site designation would require that preservation be considered if work is done on the road.

"It doesn't save anything. It simply gives us a tool that, before they can destroy something that has been designated, we can hopefully come up with a solution," said Weiss, adding that the association does not oppose widening the road.

"It's the paving we're opposed to. Once we destroy it, we'll never get it back," he said.

Weiss pointed out that Route 66 is now a major Illinois tourism draw as well. Maps from the era show the section originally was known as Old Carriage Way.

County highway engineer Tim Zahrn said the road is on the 2009 schedule for widening, repaving and drainage improvements, but the project has been pushed back before.

"It's one of our lower-volume roads, but it also carries bus traffic and traffic from residential areas around the lake," said Zahrn, noting that the county patches the road periodically and spreads gravel along the shoulders to accommodate farm equipment and buses from Ball Elementary School.

He also said that the county wouldn't necessarily oppose the historic-site designation.

"I'll try to work with them to see what our options are as far as paving it," Zahrn said.

Ball-Chatham School District director of operations Jim Lovelace said two or three buses a day use the road, but he hasn't received any complaints from drivers.

"It would be better if it was wider, but there's not a lot of traffic on it," he said.

Illinois Historic Preservation Agency spokesman Dave Blanchette said the agency's role at this point is to help submit the application. But he said several Route 66 landmarks, including central Illinois stretches of the road between Litchfield and Mount Olive and Girard and Nilwood, already are on the national list.

"This section is part of the National Route 66 Scenic Byway. Being from 1921, it also would be one of the original examples of Route 66 pavement," he said.

Route 66 followed several corridors through Springfield before Interstate 55 replaced the final section in 1977.

Tim Landis can be reached at (217) 788-1536 or tim.landis@sj-r.com.

Article Categories
News