Illinois Route 158 is an east–west state road in southwestern

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

. Its western terminus is at

Illinois Route 3 Illinois Route 3 (IL 3) is a major north–south arterial state highway in southwestern Illinois. It has its southern terminus at Cairo Junction (about north of Cairo) at the intersection of U.S. Route 51 (US 51) and Illinois Ro ...

in Columbia and its eastern terminus is at U.S. Route 50, in O'Fallon. This is a distance of .

Route description

Illinois 158 is an important east–west highway in the southeastern portions of the metropolitan

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

area. It runs from Columbia through Millstadt, Belleville, and near the

Scott Air Force Base Scott Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in St. Clair County, Illinois, near Belleville and O'Fallon, east-southeast of downtown St. Louis. Scott Field was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the ...

. Portions of the route run north–south geographically. IL 158 has a wrong-way concurrency with IL 161 near Scott Air Force Base, where you are going east on 158 and west on 161 at the same time. IDOT has used "North" and "South" cardinal direction banners for IL 158 for that concurrency in an attempt to remove confusion in that area. For the rest of the route, it is signed "East" and "West". The eastern terminus is actually the intersection with US 50 just north of I-64. The road extends past the point as "Scott-Troy Road".

History

SBI Route 158 ran from Columbia to Belleville on the current Illinois 158 routing. In 1957, it was extended north to O'Fallon, and west to the

Jefferson Barracks Bridge The Jefferson Barracks Bridge, officially the Jefferson Barracks Memorial Arch Bridge, is a pair of bridges across the Mississippi River on the south side of St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area. Each bridge is long with a long arch bridge span ...

; in 1958, Illinois 158 replaced

Illinois Route 157 Illinois Route 157 (IL 157) is a north–south state highway in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Illinois. The southern terminus of the highway is at an intersection with IL 3 in Cahokia. The northern terminus of the hig ...

on the bridge approached. In 1960, the western end was brought back to Columbia.

Future

The Illinois Department of Transportation has included a large portion of Illinois 158 in their Gateway Connector project; a southeastern beltway that would run from Columbia east to Scott Air Force Base, and north to

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...

. Illinois 158 will be a proposed 4-laned expressway all throughout its proposed route, however, some interchanges will have ramps and some may have traffic lights. This project has drawn much criticism from local residents of these areas. At least one organization, the Stop 158 group, has formed to block construction of the road and refocus use of taxpayer's dollars on a new

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 fl ...

bridge south of St. Louis. The Gateway Connector remains unfunded for construction through 2010.

Junction list

References

{{reflist 158 Transportation in Monroe County, Illinois Transportation in St. Clair County, Illinois