Obama Expressway: Stretch Of I-55 To Be Renamed For Former President

SPRINGFIELD, IL — The Eisenhower, the Stevenson and now ... the Obama. Thanks to a joint resolution of the Illinois General Assembly, an 80-mile section of I-55 will be renamed in honor of 44th President Barack Obama. The Barack Obama Presidential Expressway will stretch from the Tri-State Tollway to mile marker 202 near Pontiac.

The legislation was proposed last winter by State Rep. LaShawn Ford, a Democrat from Chicago, as a nod to Obama's stint as a state senator before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. "We can imagine that then state Senator Obama made many trips between Springfield and Chicago on Interstate 55, so it is very fitting that we rename Interstate 55 as the Barack Obama Expressway," Ford said at the time.

It's not the first measure to honor Obama, who previously lived on Chicago's South side. In May, lawmakers voted to commemorate his birthday, Aug. 4, as an honorary holiday (but not a day off from school or work).

Image via Patch file