More information needed on tollway plan
I recently voted no on the resolution for an 87.5 percent toll increase. This may be an easy and quick answer to our maintenance and expansion issues, but it is not the best answer.
To approve such an increase to fund two new projects-the Elgin/O’Hare tollway and to construct an I-57/I-294interchange in the South suburbs with many unanswered questions would be wrong. We simply need much more information to make such a decision. An example of the confusing information is the projected cost of the Elgin/O’Hare DuPage expressway. For months we have been told the cost would range from $2.2 to $3.6 billion. That is a lot of money. But if you read the report of the Elgin-O’Hare West Bypass Advisory Council published June 30, 2011 the total expense by the time the project is finished in 2019 is listed on page 19 as $4.31-billion. What is the real cost? How can we approve financing when the price could be nearly $2 billion more than one of the projected costs?
No one questions the need to rebuild I-90 the Jane Addams existing tollway which basically runs from Rosemont to Rockford. It is 50-years old and must be done. That can be done within the tollway’s current balanced budget and with a modest 10- to 15-cent toll increase at most. We should do it right now.
As for the expansion program which we are told is the major reason for the 87.5 percent toll increase, we simply need more details, time schedules and a much better understanding of the status of the Rt. 53 project to serve northern Cook and Lake counties to solve one of the region’s greatest congestion problems. Where is the funding to build this project assuming the committee of environmental groups, business groups and political leaders reach agreement on a less costly, more environmental friendly roadway in the next 12-months as we have asked them to do?
Let’s not rush and overcharge our current 1.4 million daily tollway users when a more thoughtful plan could result in a more reasonable and moderate increase.
Bill Morris
Illinois State Toll Highway Authority Director
Grayslake