Get ready for worse commutes on 88, 294

Drivers on the Reagan and Tri-State tollways should brace for a brutal spring of road construction as part of a $1 billion spending plan unveiled Thursday.

Work to widen and rebuild the northern and central Tri-State, I-294, promises to be a lengthy pain for drivers between 159th Street and 95th on the south, as well as between Balmoral and Grand avenues in Lake County. The work will result in multiple road configurations, with single express lanes and few shoulders

"It is going to be pretty complicated," said tollway spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis.

On the Reagan, I-88, crews will expand and rebuild between York Road in Oak Brook and Washington Street in Naperville and between the Aurora Toll Plaza and Orchard Road.

Some work has been ongoing this summer and fall on these parts of the Tri-State and Reagan, but that is expected to wrap up in the next month and then restart in spring.

When complete in late 2009 or early 2010, both stretches of tollway will have another lane and new surfaces that should last decades.

The work comes in the fourth year of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's five-year plan to expand the tollway system. The $6 billion deal was funded by doubling cash tolls in 2005. Top projects have included the expansion of Open Road Tolling to all plazas and the new I-355 southern extension to I-80, which will open late next month.

On Thursday, tollway officials unveiled the 2008 construction schedule and a preliminary operating budget of $236 million, including a projected spending increase of $12 million, or 5 percent.

More than $3 million of that increase is for administration and operations, which officials said was needed because of the added 12 miles on I-355.