Funding, needs at odds in tollway plan

In two weeks, the Illinois Tollway will begin a series of public hearings on an ambitious 15-year capital program that is chock-full of thoughtful planning — and red flags.

The $12 billion proposal would rebuild and widen the Jane Addams Tollway from Rosemont to Rockford. It would extend the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway to the airport and complete the bypass between I-90 and I-294. It would rebuild more than 20 miles of the Tri-State and Edens tollways, It calls for maintenance on the Reagan and Veterans tollways. And that’s just for starters.

It also calls for planning studies on a long-debated Route 53 extension into Lake County as well as on a little-discussed “Illiana Expressway,” an entirely new stretch of roadway designed, apparently, to link up with a major corridor envisioned for northern Indiana. It includes study of transit lanes on the Addams, repairs on bridges and maintenance facilities, and construction of a new interchange southwest of the city where I-294 and I-57 intersect but do not connect.

Interesting ideas all. But timely? Necessary? On those points, there’s lots and lots of room for discussion.

Consider, for example, the Route 53 extension. The tollway plan would spend tens of millions of dollars for new environmental impact statements and other preparatory work on a project whose fundamental costs, placement and value remain a major source of controversy. Indeed, as tollway leaders acknowledge, millions of dollars in previous Route 53 extension plans have grown so moldy over the past two decades that they need to be redone. Does it really make sense to schedule tens of millions of dollars in new studies without better assurance the road even will be built within the next 15 years?

Tens of millions more are planned for preliminary work on the so-called Illiana Expressway, another highway that, like the Route 53 extension, is just a figment of someone’s imagination right now. It’s clearly intended to address expected growth, an admirable goal, but why in the current economy must we ask drivers on the rest of the tollway to dig so deep into their pockets to fund such vague speculation?

These and many others are legitimate questions regarding the building plan, and we haven’t yet even gotten to the funding — massive toll increases almost immediately. Clearly, highways don’t build themselves and they don’t get built for free, but a near doubling of the tolls, especially in today’s economy, is a serious burden.

Tollway leaders told our editorial board last week that they will listen to the feedback they get at public hearings — which begin with sessions in DuPage, Lake, Kane and Cook counties on Aug. 18 — and incorporate those ideas and reactions into their final action on the plan. We hope residents and community leaders examine the proposals the tollway has put on the table, and provide clear input at the hearings. Then, we look forward to the tollway leaders keeping their word.