Many taxpayers are asking — With the end near for the Illinois tollway’s massive $6.3 billion widening and reconstruction project — what is next for this big organization? It’s taken many years to fix Chicago’s toll roads, including I-90, the Tri-State, I-88 and I-355, but Illinois State Toll Highway Authority leaders say 81 percent of the pain is over for drivers now. The Illinois Department of Transportation has led the charge on the project, which would push the expressway east along Thorndale Avenue from its terminus in Itasca to the western side of O’Hare International Airport. IDOT engineers recently announced final plans for the bypass, which would connect the Tri-State Tollway to the south and the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90) to the north. The bypass would also tie into the completed Elgin-O’Hare. After months of discussion, surrounding communities are on board.
But with the state lacking dollars to pay for something on the scale of the expressway and bypass, the tollway continues to be invoked as the agency to build part or all of it since it has a steady stream of revenue, which expansion can increase. “It is a ready-made tollway project, linking two tollways,” DePaul University transportation professor Joseph Schwieterman said. But there are other needs out there, such as extending Route 53 north into Lake County, building the Illiana Expressway linking I-57 to I-65 in Indiana, and building the Prairie Parkway between I-80 and the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88) in the far Western suburbs.
Tollway Chairman Paula Wolff said toll authority leaders met recently with IDOT Secretary Gary Hannig at the behest of Gov. Pat Quinn to work out who will take the lead on future highway construction. “We’re in the process of figuring out the next steps,” said Wolff, appointed to the tollway in August by Quinn. “We talked through some of the major projects in the region and are putting together a memo for the governor,” she said. “We absolutely need to think about what is coming next.” Still, the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway extension and O’Hare western bypass “are probably the most mature in design and community involvement compared to the Illiana or North Route 53 or the Prairie Parkway,” tollway Acting Executive Director Michael King said. In the past, the agency has chosen projects based on whether there’s community support and a willingness to share costs. TRhat’s why the extension of I-355 south became a reality, spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis said. Leaders in the Southern suburbs gave a “steady drumbeat” of support. “The tollway couldn’t ignore it,” she said.
There are also calls for the agency to explore ideas like carpooling or congestion pricing, which involves charging more to drive during peak times. Tollway officials said they want to collaborate with transit agencies, such as Metra and Pace, in 2010 and beyond. For example, the agency has applied with Pace for federal funding to construct a bus rapid transit system along the Tri-State, connecting workers in the South suburbs with job centers in Oak Brook, Rosemont and at O’Hare. And talks are continuing about the STAR line, a commuter rail proposal linking the Southwest, West and Northwest suburbs with O’Hare, with one segment to be built along the Addams Tollway. “We learned from the current program that we can’t build our way out of congestion,” King said.
“I don’t think it makes sense to make fundamental policy decisions about transportation without involving transit,” Wolff said. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Springfield have their own ideas about what the tollway’s next big thing should be – and it’s the western bypass. The Illinois House adopted a joint resolution in April authorizing the agency to sell bonds to build the bypass. The Senate has yet to vote on the idea, but “this is a project everyone knows is meritorious,” said Sen. Dan Cronin, an Elmhurst Republican co-sponsoring the resolution.
Chicago Democrat Sen. Martin Sandoval, who heads the Transportation Committee, agreed. It’s important the agency focus on projects in the Chicago area because “it’s the economic engine that supports the Illinois economy,” Sandoval said.
However, his twist on the tollway’s future includes high-speed rail, which Illinois hopes to launch if it secures federal funding in 2010. “I think the role of the tollway in the future could possibly be that it is the authority that manages high-speed rail for Illinois,” Sandoval said. Schwieterman, who directs DePaul’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, believes the dearth of state capital funding leaves the ball in the tollway’s court. “The tollway needs to fill a void from the absence of leadership from the state,” he said. “There’s been such little expressway construction in our region the last 15 years that Metropolitan Chicago lags behind the other major cities in lane miles.”
