Interstate 280 (I-280) is an

auxiliary Interstate Highway Auxiliary Interstate Highways (also called three-digit Interstate Highways) are a supplemental subset of the freeways within the Interstate Highway System of the United States. Auxiliary routes are generally classified as spur routes, which con ...

that makes up the western and southern portions of the

beltway A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...

around the

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of cities (originally four, see History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois. These cities are t ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

and

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

. The freeway starts at

I-80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

near

Davenport, Iowa Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a ...

, and ends at

near

Colona, Illinois Colona is a city in Henry County, Illinois, along the Green River. It is part of the Quad Cities metropolitan area. The population was 5,099 at the 2010 census, down from 5,173 at the 2000 census. The City of Colona was created in 1997 by the ...

; its eastern part runs

concurrent Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

with

I-74 } Interstate 74 (I-74) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Its western end is at an interchange with I-80 in Davenport, Iowa (Quad Cities); the eastern end of its Midwest segment is at an interchange ...

to return to I-80. I-280 forms the southern part of a circle around the Quad Cities as well as forming part of a bypass (along with I-80) for US Route 61 (US 61) around Davenport. This road is long.

Route description

I-280 begins at a

directional T interchange In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, using ...

with

on the northwestern outskirts of Davenport. US 6 and US 61 join I-280 from opposite directions of I-80 at the interchange. It heads south along the western edge of Davenport. At the Kimberly Road exit, US 6 splits off to the east. It continues south for , crossing Duck Creek, toward a

diamond interchange A diamond interchange is a common type of road junction, used where a controlled-access highway crosses a minor road. Design The freeway itself is grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge. Approaching the ...

with Scott County Road F65 (CR F65), which becomes Locust Street in Davenport. I-280 Bridge

Further south, I-280 passes the West Lake Park. South of West Lake Park, US 61 splits away from the Interstate on its way toward Muscatine. In the other direction, US 61 Business (US 61 Bus) heads toward the Davenport riverfront. South of US 61, I-280 curves to the southeast towards the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. It drops into the river valley and meets

Iowa Highway 22 Iowa Highway 22 (Iowa 22) is a west–east state highway that traverses primarily rural areas in east-central Iowa. The highway begins near Thornburg at an intersection with Iowa Highway 21 and ends in southwestern Davenport, at U.S. High ...

(Iowa 22). It continues southeast and crosses the river via the Sergeant John F. Baker Jr. Bridge. I-280 East End Sign ast I-80 and I-74 East (29383976957)

In Illinois, I-280 runs for . It runs southeast from the Baker Bridge to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, where it parallels the Rock River. I-280 joins with I-74 at

Quad Cities International Airport Quad Cities International Airport is a public airport in Rock Island County, Illinois, three miles (5 km) south of Moline, partly in Blackhawk Township and partly in Coal Valley Township. In 2012 it was named "Illinois Primary Airport o ...

; this concurrency continues for before terminating at the I-74/I-80 interchange. On the southeast corner of the Quad Cities (in Illinois), I-280 heading east ends and becomes I-80 while I-80 heads south from LeClaire, Rapids City, and Port Byron. I-80 heading south becomes I-74 which (after going through the center of the Quad Cities) hooks up with I-280. This exchange is called the

Big X is a science fiction manga series and an anime series by Osamu Tezuka, based on actual experiments conducted by the Nazis to create secret weapons toward the end of World War II. The anime, which was Tokyo Movie Shinsha's first work, is c ...

History

I-280 has been at the center of a few debates regarding its routing. In the early 1990s, the state of Illinois suggested, via

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test quality control, protocols, and guidelines that are used in highway design and construction through ...

(AASHTO) and

Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA, pronounced ''Ice-Tea'') is a United States federal law that posed a major change to transportation planning and policy, as the first U.S. federal legislation on the subject in ...

(ISTEA) hearings, swapping the I-80 and I-280 designations around the Quad Cities. The plan would have also changed I-74 to I-174. This was challenged by the state of Iowa, and the idea was dropped. One of the reasons Illinois pursued the matter was due to the configuration of the eastern terminus of I-280; as a simple

cloverleaf interchange A cloverleaf interchange is a two-level interchange in which all turns are handled by slip roads. To go left (in right-hand traffic; reverse directions in left-driving regions), vehicles first continue as one road passes over or under the ...

, through I-80 traffic (along the north and east branches) was required to exit on both directions. Through I-74 traffic (along the west and south branches) is also required to exit on both directions. I-280 runs due west from the interchange.

Exit list

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Interstate 280 (Illinois-Iowa) 2 Illinois-Iowa 80-2 80-2 80-2 Illinois-Iowa Transportation in Henry County, Illinois Transportation in the Quad Cities