Transportation
Chairman tells Will County board a consensus from officials, road users necessary to move ahead
The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority is ready, willing and financially able to take over Interstate 80 — if there is the political will to make it happen, a tollway official told the Will County board Thursday morning.
Tollway Chairman Bob Schillerstrom was invited to the meeting to discuss needed improvements to the interstate, where congestion and truck traffic have created safety issues. County officials indicated they are willing to partner with the tollway to move this concept forward.
The timing is right since the tollway is completing its $14 billion Move Illinois initiative to rebuild the entire system and is seeking projects to include in a new program by 2021, Schillerstrom said.
Tollway officials are “definitely looking at 80” and are familiar with problems and safety concerns in this corridor, as well as the economic opportunities, he said.
“If you are going to get things done, you have to have a partnership,” he told the board.
He said he wants to make sure there is consensus from state and local elected officials, as well as those who use the highway.
“Is there a desire from your constituents to have this road be a tollway? If so, we stand ready to work with you,” Schillerstrom said. “We are open to being creative. No options are off the table.”
Some interchanges on I-80 are like “Russian roulette,” and the Des Plaines River bridges are in “great need of repair,” said Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, adding that the state has no money for such improvements.
“We have a tremendous need here. No one likes tolls, but this is a life-and-death situation,” he said.
Tolling may be the best option because there are not many new revenue sources, Schillerstrom said.
In a recent public open house at Joliet Junior College to discuss $1 billion of proposed improvements in the 16-mile stretch of I-80 from U.S. 30 in New Lenox to Ridge Road in Minooka, the Illinois Department of Transportation said tolling could be part of its plan.
A majority of the interstates are in need of repairs, said Schillerstrom, but the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority has never taken over an interstate, except for a small piece of the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway.
If granted authority to take over I-80, the tollway would rebuild it, make it safe and create economic opportunity, and it has the finances “to do it right,” he said.
The highway would be fixed before tolls were collected, he said.
The tollway is an independent state agency with annual revenues of $1.4 billion and operating costs of $400 million, Schillerstrom said. All its revenues come from users of the 292-mile tollway system, and all money is spent on improving it, he said.
“Your tollways are in great condition. It would be wonderful to see I-80 like that,” Glasgow said.
County board member Don Moran, D-Romeoville, said even if I-80 is improved, there will still be a “bottleneck” along the Illinois/Indiana and Michigan state lines.
“I hope the Illiana is still something you are willing to look at,” he told Schillerstrom, referring to the shelved Illiana toll road project that was to connect I-55 in Wilmington with I-65 in Lowell, Indiana.
In related matters:
The county also increased it permits fees for the first time in 16 years, from $20 to $50 for a single trip for trucks up to 100,000 pounds, officials said. Truckers also can opt to pay $250 for a week or $500 a month.
The additional revenue will be used to improve roads and bridges damaged by overweight trucks.
The county’s Division of Transportation has handled about 10,000 to 15,000 overweight permits each year over the past 10 years, with spikes in 2008 to over 40,000 and 2009 with over 20,000, officials said.
