A proposal to add express lanes on a notoriously congested stretch of I-55 that passes through the western Chicago suburbs could expand from $25 million to $700 million with the addition of an extra toll lane.
The Illinois Department of Transportation is refining a proposal to add express toll lanes in each direction of a 25-mile stretch of I-55 between I-355 and I-90/94.
Gov. Bruce Rauner and IDOT proposed the express lanes last year, but IDOT recently proposed an expanded version of the plan: "having two new toll lanes in each direction from I-90/94 in the city to I-294, with one toll lane in each direction from I-294 to I-355," according to an article by Mary Wisniewski.
Wisniewski says the changes are designed to make the project "more attractive to developers, who could pay for all or part of the construction through a public-private partnership." The Illinois General Assembly would have to approve any proposed public-private partnership, and as we noted over the summer, the I-55 express lane project has not exactly sailed through the state government.
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