Photo Gallery

Early road work was often accomplished by a haphazard combination of governmental employees and small construction companies.

Companies were usually one or two man affairs with horse-drawn equipment.

Car on West Lane Road

This car is stuck in the mud on West Lane Road which is now Illinois Highway 173. circa 1920

North Suburban Library District Local History Collection

Dirt roads thankfully gave way to concrete and blacktop.

Men and equipment from Sjostrom & Sons, Inc. and Rockford Blacktop Construction Company help connect northern Illinois to its southern neighbors with the completion of this stretch of Highway 39.