Tollway gets Elgin O'Hare sales pitch

DuPage County leaders cited economic benefits and local consensus while urging the Illinois tollway to adopt the Elgin O'Hare Expressway and O'Hare western bypass projects Thursday.

The Elgin O'Hare Expressway doesn't go to either destination currently, running between Itasca and Hanover Park. The Illinois State Department of Transportation is designing plans to extend the Elgin O'Hare east to the airport and to build a bypass around the airport that connects with I-294 to the south, the expressway in the center and I-90 to the north.

However, IDOT is short on funds, meaning "if it's going to be built, it will have to be the tollway," DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom said.

It's estimated to cost about $3.6 billion, with $2 billion going toward the western bypass segment. But with 4 million trips occurring in the vicinity of the project, there's a potential to generate a lot of revenues from new tolls.

Schillerstrom, along with officials from Bensenville and Itasca, told tollway directors that linking the expressway to the western terminal and building the bypass with strategic interchanges in communities will stimulate growth.

"There will be a ripple effect in the economy that produces jobs," Bensenville Village President Frank Soto said.

"This is a project of national significance," Itasca Village Administrator Dave Williams said.

Local leaders also stressed that after years of wrangling over where to locate the bypass, towns located near the project were in consensus about its construction. Community support is one crucial component of the tollway signing onto any project.

Tollway board directors didn't make any formal decisions on the proposals. The board is reviewing numerous major construction initiatives, which range from building an interchange with the Tri-State and I-57 in the south suburbs, to extending Route 53 in Lake County, to the Prairie Parkway - a highway that would connect I-88 and I-80 in the far west suburbs.

"We may be the only game in town," Director Bill Morris said, "but someone's got to pay for this." He asked staff for a cost analysis of the various projects under consideration.

But Director Maria Saldaña noted, "we know O'Hare expansion has been a long time coming. With everyone coming to the table, it's exciting."