McClugage Road

McClugage Road is a one-mile stretch connecting Boyd Parkway to Washington Road.  Before the construction of Boyd Parkway, however, McClugage Road continued to the river, and its construction was a significant benefit to Washingtonians.

Before there was a McClugage Road or a McClugage Bridge, the north side of Peoria could be accessed by Washingtonians via Holland’s Grove Road (HGR).  HGR was named because Washington was initially known as Holland’s Grove. HGR, little more than a path, led here from the West and has had a long history in our community.  Before McClugage Road was constructed, HGR and what is now Grosenbach Road was a single road connecting Spring Creek Road and Caterpillar Trail.  In the overhead photos from the 1930s (below), the first shows HGR and its connection to Spring Creek on the far right.  The red dot is positioned at the current eastern dead end of Hollands Grove Road, and the arrow points to where it met Spring Creek Road back then.

This second map (below) shows the current western terminus of Hollands Grove Road (red dot) and the current eastern terminus of Grosenbach Road (blue dot) and how they connected in the 1930s before the construction of McClugage Road.  The road then continued west, winding its way down to Caterpillar Trail.

Around the time these photos were taken in the 1930s, there was a push to replace the Upper Free Bridge in Peoria.  The Upper Free Bridge crossed the Illinois River at the narrow channel just north of what is now the McClugage Bridge.  The concrete supports one sees in that area today are from that bridge.  The bridge (seen below), which opened in 1888, was aging quickly, and a replacement was severely needed due to numerous barge collisions.

The replacement for the Upper Free Bridge, the Harvard Avenue Bridge, later named the McClugage Bridge, was not completed until 1948 due to WWII.

Throughout the discussions of replacing the Upper Free Bridge as early as 1932, Washington was continually lobbying for a straight road to connect the bridge to the area near “The Forks,” which residents now know as the Route 8/24 intersection. Still, when the McClugage Bridge opened in 1948, the road east only made it as far as Caterpillar Trail, where it met a stop sign.

Through the 1950s, Route 24 through Sunnyland and East Peoria had become incredibly congested.  Sunnyland’s population had exploded with Caterpillar’s growth, and Route 24 was still a two-lane road.

In 1959, the State Highway Department proposed the McClugage Road project.  The state would be responsible for constructing the road from the bridge due east to about Grange Road, and then Tazewell County would be responsible for constructing the connecting road to intersect with Route 24.

The most significant potential delay in the plan was the cloverleaf intersection at Route 116, which was a substantial portion of the cost.

Throughout the process, the main path of the new project, which became known as Federal Aid Route 172, was always understood to be due east to Eureka, bypassing Washington. That was not in the financial picture in the early stages and would not be completed until 1995.

By 1960, the state was ready to begin construction of the road, and grading began.  Below is an enhanced photo of the beginning of the 8/24 intersection.

The road was finally opened on a cold November 19, 1964.