State Rep. La Shawn Ford announced Wednesday that he’s drafting legislation to change Interstate 55 to the Barack Obama Expressway.
Before moving to the White House, Obama called Chicago’s South Side his home, working as a community organizer and later being elected as a state senator in 1997 and a U.S. senator in 2004.
“We can imagine that then state Senator Obama made may trips between Springfield and Chicago on Interstate 55, so it is very fitting that we rename Interstate 55 as the Barack Obama Expressway,” he added.
The stretch of I-55 from Lakeshore Drive in Chicago to the Tri-State Tollway is currently named after Adlai Stevenson, the late Illinois governor and two-time presidential candidate. Ford wants to rename the rest of the 270 mile stretch of I-55 from the Tri-State Tollway to East St. Louis after Obama.
“Renaming I-55 for President Barack Obama would not only be an honor for America’s 44th president, but it will be the right measure we should approve for Illinois’ very own state Senator and U.S. Senator,” Ford said.
“This would be one of the many highways and byways that will be named for Barack Obama, so it is only right that Illinois be at the forefront of the many actions that will rename streets and highways for President Obama."
