Tollway budget grows with road expansion
As the Illinois tollway expands the road system, it’s also expanding spending and adding engineering jobs, the preliminary 2012 budget shows.
The agency will hire 20 engineering department employees in preparation for a $12 billion construction program that includes rebuilding plus adding roads and interchanges.
The agency’s preliminary 2012 budget anticipates $973 million in spending and a similar amount in revenue, compared to $680 million this year, a 43 percent jump. Much of the increase is construction-related. The tollway is raising rates Jan. 1 by 35 to 45 cents at most toll plazas to pay for the work.
For half the tollway board of directors at a Thursday meeting, the rate increase, construction program and preliminary budget were unfamiliar territory. Gov. Pat Quinn replaced four board members — including toll hike critic Bill Morris — on Monday as well as appointing a fifth director to fill a vacated spot.
The operating budget, which includes salaries, is $266 million in 2012 as opposed to $255 million in 2011. The 4.3 percent bump is mostly because of higher pension contribution costs and credit card fees.
Adding 20 more engineering staff members will be offset partly by not filling 19 vacant toll collector jobs, officials said.
It’s not clear how many jobs will be added as the building program continues. “We will continue to analyze it,” Executive Director Kristi Lafleur said. “We think this is what we need now to scale up not only for next year’s activity (2012) but for the larger construction year following (2013).”
Salaries for the 20 employees will cost $675,000 for six months — tollway administrators said it would take several months to hire staff members and not all would be needed in the first half of 2012. Positions include an executive engineer, senior project manager, materials engineer, engineering analyst, technicians, planning manager, intergovernmental agreement manager, data entry manager, two secretaries, a community relations manager and a mechanic.
The 2012 $607 million capital budget represents a 118 percent jump from the 2011 budgeted amount of $279 million.
Among the construction projects in the $12 billion plan are an interchange at the Tri-State Tollway and I-57, widening I-90, and extending the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway to the airport and building a western bypass. The tollway will contribute $3 billion to the project, but a $300 million funding gap remains, expected to be paid from federal or local sources. Lafleur said she discussed the shortfall with local leaders and one option could be scaling back plans by reducing interchanges, for example.
Officials estimated a 5.8 percent drop in traffic in 2012 because of the toll hike. “Ultimately, we expect to see that rebound in a few years,” Lafleur said.
The agency holds a hearing on the budget at 6 p.m. Nov. 15 at its headquarters in Downers Grove.