History
Illinois 40 was previously designated Illinois Route 88. In 1992, Illinois Route 5, a four-lane freeway which crosses Illinois 40, was designated Interstate 88. To prevent confusion, IDOT redesignated Illinois 88 as Illinois 40. Although the new number is also the number of a Federal Highway that passes through Illinois (U.S. Route 40), a great enough distance exists between them that the possibility of confusing one for the other is negligible.
Prior to 2003, the Illinois 40 exit on I-74 southeast of Peoria was called "Industrial Spur". As part of the Upgrade 74 Project, the exit was renamed by the Illinois Department of Transportation to Riverfront Drive, presumably to give East Peoria's riverfront exit a better image, and also to reflect the fact that the riverfront is now a commercial destination as opposed to another exit for Caterpillar Inc.
Exactly what was renamed remains obscure, since the onramp has an interchange with Camp Street, terminates at Washington Street, and the only other intersection that Illinois 40 has in East Peoria is with River Road, not Riverfront Drive. The only remaining possibility is that Illinois 40 itself between Washington Street and Interstate 74 is Riverfront Drive. As a result, Illinois 40 has the distinction of being the only onramp explicitly named in Illinois. The name Riverfront Drive is particularly ironic since the road is not the closest road to the river.
Read more about this topic: Illinois Route 40
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—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)