Tollway tentative budget released: Tri-State, I-490 construction are priorities
Illinois tollway leaders presented a preliminary 2025 budget that includes increasing road maintenance staffing and forging ahead with major construction projects, such as the Interstate 490 corridor.
At a Thursday meeting, Executive Director Cassaundra Rouse called the budget: “a balanced spending plan to support customer service, safety and security, and employee investment to improve efficiency — as well as the implementation of the largest capital program in the agency’s history.”
The $1.72 billion budget represents a 4.2% increase from 2024 and covers salaries, equipment, IT, debt service and ongoing maintenance.
Passenger car travel tanked mid COVID-19 and has been slow to rebound. But tollway analysts predict total 2025 transactions, including trucks, will reach 1.03 billion, surpassing 2019 for the first time since the pandemic. Those transactions would generate $1.7 billion.
The agency’s $1.15 billion 2025 capital program is about $110.7 million more than the 2024 forecast.
Priorities include the continued widening of the Central Tri-State Tollway (I-294), and building I-490, which will wrap around O’Hare International Airport’s west side and link with I-90 near Des Plaines and I-294 in Franklin Park.
“It’s challenging, we have to coordinate that work with the traffic below as well as the railroad,” Chief Engineer Manar Nashif said of ramps linking I-490 and the Tri-State.
Another focus is extending Route 390 to meet I-490 at a future interchange leading to O’Hare.
Tri-State construction in 2025 concentrates on the mainline between I-55 and Cermak Road, the I-88 and I-290 interchange, and between St. Charles Road and North Avenue.
Other projects include: rehabbing the I-355 Des Plaines River Valley Bridge; and rebuilding the York Road Bridge and repairing pavement between Route 251 and Route 56 on I-88.
Officials said they would continue to implement the new I-PASS sticker program in 2025. The small devices gradually are replacing transponders; so far more than 1.1 million have been distributed.
The board will vote on the budget in December after two public meetings at 6 p.m. Nov. 18 at LIUNA, 999 McClintock Drive, Burr Ridge, and 1 p.m. Nov. 21 at tollway headquarters in Downers Grove.