Business Ledger News Editor Mark Thomton recently interviewed Brian McPartlin, executive director of the Illinois Toll Highway Authority (“the Tollway”) at the agency’s Downers Grove headquarters. Here are exerpts from that interview.
Q: Where are we in the Congestion Relief Program?
A: We are in the third year of this program and that is something that we effectively worked on when we got here. We wanted to put together a program that the governor could stand behind and invest in the Tollway, showing how we wanted to apply a good business model and deliver something for our customers.
Q: How is the Tollway funded?
A: I think what is lost a lot of times is that people get confused as to whether the Tollway is state funded or not. The Tollway is an independent organization that is run by the user fees that we collect. It doesn’t incorporate any state tax dollars. Our funding comes from our customers so we put together a business plan to present to the governor of a congestion relief program that he was going to stand behind us on. And that is really has been what able to deliver these wonderful benefits that we have got today. Primarily we are in our third year.
Open road tolling was the key focus of this plan. It was to deliver that benefit of congestion relief and a savings of travel time reduction. Those were the two key focuses that the governor kind of honed in on when we delivered this concept, because ultimately that would be a direct benefit to our customers. It is a time-saving element and it gets them out of congestion and allows them to do the things that they want to do more. So the initial focus of the plan was a conversion of 20 barrier-style plazas to open road tolling, which is what you see today.
Q: Are there open road tolling stations in construction?
A: The initial 20 were completed within 22 months. What we are working on now is the cash side of the plazas. We focused on delivering the benefit of open road tolling first and now we are working on improving the cash lanes and the buildings. That work will continue until July of this year. Some will be a little bit longer on some of the locations on the Tri-state because we are doing additional road work on the Tri-state. That will go into next year.
Q: What is the feedback so far on open road tolling from customers?
A: We have received numerous e-mails from our interstate travelers and our own customers that say we literally save them time. I have come to realize that we have more interstate romances than I thought as people say they get to their loved ones house quicker because of this. It’s nice to know that 80 percent of our system is a commuter-based system. It is people who are going suburb to suburb and they are getting there quicker and more efficiently. It really goes to the quality of life issue.
The industry said that it would take 10 years to do, but we did it in two. We put together an aggressive plan with a new management team and developed wonderful relationships with our contractors and consultants and really became an agency that was thinking outside the box.
Q: Have you completed any studies that show a shorter commute time?
A: Anecdotally we hear about it all the time. The majority of users say it is 10-15 minutes each way on their commute. In many cases we are looking at a 30 minutes savings round-trip. That is fantastic. We still have construction going on, but we are delighted on the savings. I can attest to it as a user.
Q: The congestion relief program is a 10-year program. How much of the money was allocated to open road tolling and what does the remaining seven years hold for us?
A: What you have to keep in mind is that we put together a 10-year program of a $5.3 billion congestion relief program. That was what we thought would be needed at that time. Now since that time major things have happened and there have been other requests and once you get into it project-by-project you realize that there are other things that you can do while you are there so you don’t have to go back and disrupt peoples’ lives all over again.
So we have made significant enhancements on the system as we have done this. We continue to reevaluate the system quarter-by-quarter and also do continual studies. We also have continual requests from municipalities regarding interchanges and access roads. It could potentially be longer. It is a rolling 10-year plan, because there are other things we are going to have to evaluate moving on.
Q: Tollway users pay for maintenance and upkeep. Was the $5.3 billion allocated from the state?
A: That was actually bonded. Half of it was from bonds and half of it was from toll revenue.
Q: What are some other plans for future congestion relief?
A: Let’s talk about Will County. Congestion relief in Will County means that you are actually going to have a tollroad now that is going to allow you access those communities. There was never a quick way to get to any of the communities in Will County. You had to take back roads to get to those towns.
Over the past 15 years the Tollway has acquired land for the I-355 extension, extending it from I-55 to I-80. That was something that had been on the shelf for a long time. The good news is that the Tollway actually had the foresight to buy the land. Back then they didn’t have any money to fund it. The $5.3 billion relief program allowed us to deliver what was a fantasy for people in that area and make it a reality. They will see that reality this November.
It is going to be complete within three years. It is a 12.5-mile segment of roadway. It is the first new roadway built in Illinois in 20 years, since (the northern part of) 355. You had to move 10.2 million cubic-yards of earth. By the time we are done we will have put down 410,000 cubic-yards of concrete. We also have a 1.3 mile bridge. You can image what an engineering feat it is to do that. The estimate was seven years and we are going to get it down in three.
Q: The extension could be an economic boom for some cities. How do you determine where entrance and exit ramps are located? Is that simply logistics or do towns petition for those?
A: It’s a little of both actually. It’s planning, traffic counts and studies done with our traffic consultants. Certainly the municipalities lobby heavily, because it has a major economic impact on their towns and communities. There is a 1.7 million square-foot mall going up where I-55 and I-80 is in the Lockport and Lemont area. It will replicate Oak Brook. That is a community that never would have had that before.
The tollway really is an economic engine. It is 274 miles that runs through 12 counties. A lot of communities want to strap onto this system. The rural towns want it for development, whether it be residential or commercial.
Q: There’s been a lot of talk about the Prairie Parkway in the westernmost part of the region. Would that be something that the Tollway would be a part of?
A: We have no thought or input and we have not been asked at this point. Where it is at right now I have no idea and I don’t know where the current funding is. I know Speaker Hastert championed that when he was the Speaker of the House. IDOT (Illinois Department of Transportation), being the lead transportation agency for the state, if they see a reason for toll assistance or help we have a great relationship and will work with them if needed.
IDOT has 102 counties to worry about and we have 12. We are an independent authority. We are always coordinating with IDOT because within our 12 counties we have tollway roads that intersect with IDOT roads.
Q: What areas are currently under construction and what is the time frame and cost?
A: Keep in mind that many of these roads are over 50 years old. A lot of these roads have been neglected, so we have to smooth them out. We have a lot of work going on the Reagan Memorial Tollway. We are going to have work from York Road all the way out to Orchard Road. That is a $600 million project.
The Tri-State is the Tollway’s bread and butter. That is where the majority of our revenue comes from. There has been work on the Tri-State from Indiana to Wisconsin. Phase one of the south Tri-State is done and we are now in the central and north Tri-State, which is pretty much 95th Street through Dempster and then all the way up to the Wisconsin line. We have got a good segment of work there. That is a $1.5 billion project.
What I constantly say all the time is that it is a short-term pain for a long-term gain. These roads have been neglected for decades. The Tollway did not have the funds or the ability to raise funds. We are now in a position in this congestion relief program to do these things and deliver a benefit to our customers. This is a rebuild and widen project that has been sorely needed for a long time.
Q: How have fuel cost increases affected the Tollway?
A: The good news is we have our own fuel contracts that are issued competitively priced and we buy fuel off the CMS master contract, but needless to say, fuel is outrageous. I’m not going to say that fuel prices, steel prices, asphalt prices and oil prices don’t affect construction. They do. There are certain escalations built in that you see. The good news is that we have been aggressive. When you are aggressive you are able to deliver projects on a consistent basis.
The benefit you get from that is that you keep the projects moving and you can buy the quantities at current prices time wise and that is a cost savings. That is good business. Good overall project management helps us keep cost down.
I-355 is a $730 million project. The 1.3 mile bridge on 355 is $125 million alone and will be the longest bridge in our system. It is going to be delivered on time and on budget in November. That is huge. I can’t guesstimate what escalation will be moving forward, but I do know that if you deliver a project in the timeframe that you say and lock in a price and contractors you have a greater benefit to delivering that and getting it done because you have locked in a competitive price.
Q: What’s behind the disagreement between Indiana and Illinois toll authorities?
A: I just want Indiana to be a good neighbor. It really comes down to the fact that Indiana is beginning their electronic tollway program and we are delighted for that. It is the wave of the future. We think states should all have open road tolling as well.
What we want is reciprocity. They are offering their Hoosiers a 40 percent discount, but when Hoosiers come to Illinois with an I-pass they get a 50 percent discount. We are asking for reciprocity. We want the 40 percent discount too. We currently have 90,000 Hoosiers who have I-Pass. That equates to over $9 million annually in discounts we have been giving annually.
We have done this for three years which comes in around $27 million. We are just asking that our customers be treated the same, whether they be frequent users or not. That’s all we ask. We are going to continue to put the pressure on. It’s about fighting for our customers and being a good neighbor. But most importantly it is about belonging to this interstate agency that we belong to. There are 11 states that belong to this group that allows inter-operability.
Q: How many drivers on the Tollway daily?
A: There are 1.4 million on any given day. We have around 3 million I-Pass accounts. Our budget this year is $630 million. That goes right back into maintenance and operations.
Q: What is the Tollway system going to look like in 10 years? What is the next step?
A: You still have the Northwest Tollway. You also have a Star Line system that many communities are pushing on the transit side. Ten years is a long time, 20 years is even further, but we want to focus on what we promised initially and what we can deliver. We have delivered this far and we know that transportation needs to change as municipalities continue to grow. There is a lot of chatter about a I-294 and I-57 interchange and some chatter about extending 53 north into Lake County as a toll road. There is an Elgin-O’Hare expressway that doesn’t go to Elgin or O’Hare. Do we play a role in that? There are enough things that need to be done.
We are going to continue to work with our transit partners like IDOT, CTA, Metra and Pace to provide congestion relief. We don’t have to fight the budget issues that they do, so we have been able to deliver our promises on time, which is a rare thing in a governmental entity.