stretch that goes through the Rand (US 12) and Dundee (IL 68) interchanges is considered to be one of the country's deadliest interchanges in traffic accidents. At Lake Cook Road, the freeway ends at a trumpet interchange and IL 53 heads west for about . It then heads north at the intersection of North Hicks Road. It then heads east through Long Grove and reaches its northern terminus at IL 83. History SBI Route 53 ran from Romeoville to Long Grove on Rohlwing Road and Hicks Road from 1924 to 1963. From 1963 through 1970, it was routed onto a new freeway from Addison to Rolling Meadows and cosigned with I-90 until that was changed to I-290. In 1967 IL 53 was extended to Gardner, and in 1995 IL 129 was routed onto IL 53 south of Braidwood. This lasted a year until IL 129 was dropped entirely south of Braidwood. Near the northern end, the freeway was extended from Dundee Road to Lake–Cook Road in 1989. In 1990, with the construction of I-355, IL 53 was moved off the I-290/I-355 combination south of Biesterfield Road and back onto its original alignment. For over 40 years, IL 53 had been at the center of a major dispute regarding a northern extension of its freeway segment into Lake County. The studied corridor ran from the current terminus of the freeway at Lake–Cook Road north to a planned bypass for IL 120 near Grayslake. The combined IL 53/IL 120 extension would have formed a large T-shape in the center of Lake County, with the IL 120 bypass carrying through traffic from US 12 to the Tri-State Tollway around Gurnee. The extension was opposed by several organizations, notably the Illinois chapter of the Sierra Club, and many residents of Long Grove, which lies in the path of the highway. The Sierra Club opposed the roadway extension because it would have been routed through wetlands and the group had concerns about suburban sprawl and increased pollution. Due to funding constraints with IDOT, the Illinois General Assembly authorized the Illinois Tollway to plan and construct the IL 53 extension in 1993, and was studied on and off for 25 years. In 2019, the latest study was suspended, effectively cancelling the project. Major intersections References External links IL Route 53 Traffic and Road Conditions Illinois Route 53 Study at IDOT State highways in Illinois U.S. Route