Currently, IL 53 coincides with Route 66 through Joliet. North of Joliet, the early roadbed was four lanes wide by 1936. It passed by the notorious Stateville Penitentiary, then in unincorporated Joliet but now in Crest Hill ever since that suburb was created. After IL 53 splits to the north in Romeoville, the road is signed only as Historic US 66. The later alignments rejoin this original path at Welco Corners, an early crossroads now part of Bolingbrook that by the 1920s had added a truck stop and other motorists' services.