Ferry Road

The purpose of these pictures is to show the progress of Ferry Road in Naperville, as it is widened from rural 2-lane (without even center stripes) to a 4-lane commercial parkway west of Route 59.  All top pics were taken in May 2004.  The bottom pics are of December 2004 and in blue, courtesy of my roadtrip compadre Margot.  Thanks very much!!

 

Here it is just west of IL 59 in May. 

 

And here is the intersection with Route 59 in December.

 All these cars are turning off to the CarMax or Odyssey Fun World, located at the corner of IL 59 and I-88 (East-West Tollway or Reagan Memorial Tollway) in May. 

 

Closer view of Ferry and Route 59 in December.
Just west of the last picture, this one shows that work has barely even started on this stretch of road.  This is pretty much how the road looked before construction started.

 

Same view seven months later.

 You can clearly see the lack of development along this corridor, although I'm sure that will change in the near future.  Farmland country, this here is.

 

Same view again seven months later.
Ah, the center stripes have disappeared and Ferry Rd. becomes a truly rural road!  It was very rough and narrow, surrounded by cornfields, and part of this section of road is being completely bypassed by the new version completely.

Bypassed by this stretch over the railroad tracks.

 Signs of construction have reappeared as the road continues to curve westward.

 

 

No new picture.
You don't see construction here because this is the part that is being bypassed.  This section had the most dangerous curves and extremely rough road.  Like, I mean potholes the size of Montana.

Sadly, they closed off the old road so that you can't even drive on it.  Looks like it will be overgrown with weeds in the spring.

 Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the menacing railroad crossing with the 3 foot drop.  At least that's how it felt to go over it even at 20 mph.
Right after those evil tracks, Ferry enters a commercial area and the pavement improves 200%.  It ends about 1/3 mile west of here at Eola Rd. The old end of Ferry Rd. at Eola Rd. in western DuPage County.  The new Ferry will hit Eola just south of here and connect to another road (Bilter Rd.), which goes into Kane County and Aurora.

This is where Ferry Rd. now ends at Eola.  Bilter Rd. continues past the light.

New pics only:

A view of Bilter Rd. WB. Keepin' on keepin' on on Bilter.
At the Kane County line, Bilter reduces to 2-lanes. Looking back east at the Eola/Ferry intersection from Bilter.
I like the lighting in this picture of Ferry Road climbing the hill over the railroad tracks EB.

 

 Descending the hill.

Looking east, west of IL 59.  The bridge you see is the Prairie Path. And here we are back at Route 59 looking east this time.

 

 

In the late 1990s, Ferry was extended from its end at River Rd. in Warrenville (where it made a 90 degree turn northwards) to Warrenville Rd. and Mill Street in Naperville.  It was also widened throughout and commercial activity sprouted up.  This is part of the Cantera development project, which has been very successful for Warrenville.  On the left is a map from 1992 and on the right, from 1999.  You can see how Ferry and Winfield Roads have both grown.  The maps were both from Rand McNally.  

 

 

On the left map, the N-S red highway on the left is IL 59, the central expressway is I-88 (E-W Tollway) and Ferry Road is the yellow road just north of I-88.  To the far right of the left map, you can see how Ferry Rd. curved into River Rd. and how Winfield Rd. was proposed to be extended to just past I-88.  The right map shows Ferry Road's extension to Warrenville Rd. and Mill St.  Again, the expressway is I-88 and Ferry is just north of that.  Winfield Rd. is complete, too.

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