An Illinois state lawmaker is looking to rename a 270-mile stretch of Interstate 55 as the “Barack Obama Expressway.”
In a press release Wednesday, state Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, said he is drafting legislation to dub the portion of the highway from the Tri-State Tollway to East Street Louis for Obama, who before serving as president, served as a community organizer in Chicago and became a state senator and U.S. senator from Illinois.
“Twenty years ago, on January 8, 1997, Barack Obama was sworn in as an Illinois state senator, his first public office,” Ford said in a statement.
“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.”
Another portion of I-55, from Lakeshore Drive in Chicago to the Tri-State Tollway is named the Stevenson Expressway in honor of the Illinois governor and two-time presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson.
Calling it a way to honor the 44th president, Ford added, “this would be one of 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.”
