Illinois Tollway Set to Spend $922M in Capital Projects This Year

The Illinois Tollway plans to invest $922 million in capital projects this year, doubling the amount it spent in 2012.

In addition to maintenance and repairs, the Tollway will fund several projects included in Move Illinois, a 15-year, $12-billion program it says will create up to 10,000 construction jobs in northern Illinois.

The program will ramp up this year as work begins on a $2.2-billion project to rebuild and widen the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90), a northwest-to-southeast artery extending from the Wisconsin state line near Rockford to the Indiana state line near Chicago. In all, the Tollway will invest $415 million in the project this year.

The Tollway also will break ground on the $3.4 billion Elgin O’Hare bypass, a project intended to improve access from Chicago suburbs to O'Hare International Airport, and continue work on the new $719-million Tri-State Tollway (I-294)/I-57 interchange, which will enhance mobility in Chicago's southern suburbs. 

The Tollway intends to spend nearly $100 million on the bypass in 2013, with further work contingent on land acquisition, permits, agreements and utility relocations. The (I-294)/I-57 interchange will receive $66.7 million (I-294)/I-57 in funds this year as work begins on new ramps for the project. The Tollway is undertaking the project in partnership with the Illinois Department of Transportation.

This year, the Tollway also will conclude work on a new $61 million interchange in Huntley, an outer suburb of Chicago. When completed, the interchange will include a geothermal water piping system that reduces the cost of heating and cooling nearby plaza buildings.

Move Illinois is funded by bonds and toll revenue generated by a rate increase for passenger vehicles in 2012 and an increase for commercial vehicles beginning in 2015.