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Illinois’ 5-year tollway project underbudget and ahead of schedule

By Richard Wronski Tribune reporter

After years of weaving around concrete barriers, navigating tricky lane changes and slow-ing for 45mph work zones on Illinois toll roads, construction-weary motorists finally have clear sailing in sight.

Just in time for winter, the Illinois tollway authority said that this month it will wrap up most of a five-year program to rebuild roads and interchanges and widen toll roads.

“We’re driving toward the finish line,” chief engineer Paul Kovacs recently told Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board members.

At a cost of $6.1 billion, the massive Congestion-Relief Program is running about $200 million under budget, tollway officials say. Raising skeptics’

eyebrows even further, officials say the work is ahead of sched-ule. Some portions that weren’t expected to be done until spring are complete.

“Is it better? Oh yes, without a doubt,” said Bob Puerling, 70, who uses the tollway almost daily, driving vehicles for a deal-ership in West Bend, Wis. “It’s four lanes. ... It’s nice.”

Officials still face the challenge of making sure enough toll-paying motorists use the 286-mile system to pay off a debt load that will soon hit $4 billion and isn’t scheduled to disappear until at least 2034.

That’s almost ten times the cost of building the original 187-mile, four-lane system, parts of which opened in 1958 and which many believe should have become freeways years ago.

Tollway directors approved the sweeping effort to rebuild and widen the system in September 2004. The plan was to replace nearly 50-year-old concrete, re-duce congestion by adding lanes and convert manned toll plazas into nonstop open-road tolling with I-PASS.

A key component was extend-ing I-355, now the Veterans Memorial Tollway, more than 12

miles south from I-55 in Boling-brook to I-80 in New Lenox. That toll road opened in 2007.

The tollway has awarded more than $4.5 billion worth of contracts for construction, design and inspection work. The program will open four lanes each way on most of the Tri-State (I-294), the Reagan (I-88) and Jane Addams (I-90) tollways.

What’s left for 2010 are the resurfacing and rehabbing of the Edens Expressway spur; resurfacing on the Veterans from the Reagan to Army Trail Road; and resurfacing the Ad-dams from the Tri-State to the Elgin Toll Plaza.

The extra lanes, the new Vet-erans and open-road tolling are expected to result in more toll-paying drivers, officials say. Toll revenues pay for about half the $6.1 billion program cost, with the other $3.5 billion financed from the sale of bonds.

Seth Lehman, an analyst with Fitch Ratings, which keeps a close eye on tollway finances, confirmed the rebuilding and widening program is under budget.

Fitch gives the tollway an AA- rating, but characterizes the outlook as “negative” because

of concern over whether toll revenues will match rising debt levels.

“We’re cautious about (the tollway) until we start seeing some growth,” Lehman said. Fitch is expected to issue an update this week.

Revenues from tolls and fines are expected to hit $680mil-lion in 2010, compared with estimates of $629 million in 2009, according to the tollway’s 2010 budget.

The tollway rehab program is designed to relieve congestion, not simply raise revenue, acting Executive Director Michael King said.

“Our goal is to get people where they’re going,” King said. “We’re not a money-making venture in that there would be a surplus. ... (By law) we can’t make a profit.”

The program is coming in under budget and on time because of “extremely aggres-sive project management” and because the sagging economy has sharpened competition in the construction industry, King said.

“The reality is while the economy is suffering, it’s a great time to be putting out bids for services,” King said. “We’ve

benefited from hungry con-struction workers looking for work. Everyone from architects to electricians.”

State Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg (D-Evanston), a longtime toll-way critic, said the authority’s claim of being $200 million un-der budget needs more thorough independent scrutiny.

“If, in fact, that is the case, it would be a sharp departure from what we’ve often seen with past tollway projects,” Schoen-berg said. “For many tollway contracts, cost overruns and change orders are the rule.”

The tollway’s budget sum-mary lists nearly $177 million worth of change orders or extra work associated with the program.

The tollway was on the verge of adding a $1.8 billion second phase to the program last year.

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced that the tollway would add carpool “green lanes” to much of the system, build a new interchange at the Tri-State and I-57, and improve the I-290/I-90 connection.

Tollway directors put the plan on hold after Blagojevich’s ar-rest and ouster. Gov. Pat Quinn vowed to reform the agency and has named Paula Wolff as toll-

way chairman, as well as adding two new board members.

Tollway critic Terry Pastika, head of the Elmhurst-based Citizen Advocacy Center, believes the tollway needs to be more accountable and do a better job of administering I-PASS.

“I think people are pleased that construction is coming to an end. But the cornerstone of the program was I-PASS, and there are serious concerns about how effective I-PASS has been due to the well-documented problems the public has had,” Pastika said, referring to the tollway’s now-cleared backlog of uncollected fines.

But for Patty French of Kildeer, the news that most of the construction was over was reason for celebration.

“Now I can drive downtown again,” she said. “It seems like every single road around here has been under construction.”

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$6.1 billion: Cost of the entire tollway project$200 million: Amount project is under budget

rwronski@tribune.com

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End in sight for massive construction plan