Strategic Investment Drives Illinois Tollway Toward Technology-Driven Future

The news that the Illinois Tollway has budgeted nearly $1 billion this year for capital investment, with the largest share devoted to Move Illinois projects, points back to three priorities the agency has laid out for advancing its system and meeting customer expectations: redundant power, fiber, and communications.

The funding announcement made news late last month, after the Tollway’s board approved its 2017 budget. Better Roads reported that the agency had allocated $374.5 million for construction on the new Route 390 Tollway, and for tollway planning for the Elgin O’Hare Western Access Project. $165.3 million will fund interchange and local road improvements and new SmartRoad technology for the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway, another $56.5 million will cover planning and design for reconstruction of the Central Tri-State Tollway, and $295 million will be set aside for general system maintenance.

“This budget represents our best efforts to deliver strategic investments in infrastructure improvements, state-of-the art technology, and the diverse communities we serve,” says Illinois Tollway Executive Director Greg Bedalov. That mix of objectives was front and center last September, at IBTTA’s 84^th Annual Meeting and Exhibition in Denver, when Chief of Planning Rocco Zucchero laid out his vision for a technology-driven future for the agency.

Job One: Keep Business in Motion

“We can’t build our way out of congestion, so the way we’re looking at it is: what opportunity do we have through technology?” Zucchero explained. He described a long-term, strategic investment strategy, grounded in collaboration with other agencies and transportation partners.

“Our goal and vision is to maximize what we have and supplement that with technology,” he said. “And that means redundant power, fiber, and communication,” all driven by insights drawn from an avalanche of operational data.

The Tollway’s present-day profile underscores the importance of its 15-year, $12-billion capital program. Its roadways carry 1.6 million vehicles per day, and 88% of its 2.6 million daily transactions are paid electronically.

And the stakes are incredibly high: Chicago is the hub of one of the world’s biggest, most multi-modal transportation centers, including a commuter and cargo hub at O’Hare International Airport. For the Tollway, which serves about 50% of the region, Job One is that “business has to move the people, goods, and services that support the local, state, and regional economy.”

A Test Bed for Technology

Behind the Tollway’s year-by-year budgeting is a commitment to try out new technologies at every turn, Zucchero said. The agency is deliberately using its $2.5-billion, 62-mile rebuild along the I-90 corridor as “a perfect test bed for new technology.” I-90 is one of the Tollway’s most challenging corridors, he explained—it’s “tapped out on space”, with high volumes of commercial and commuter traffic. So as new options come along to optimize capacity and utilization, “we’re not afraid to test and try…It’s about flexibility and adaptability.”

The Tollway is also looking at setting up a pilot corridor for connected and autonomous vehicles. “We want to continue to give our region a competitive advantage,” he told Annual Meeting participants.

Click here for a summary of IBTTA’s 84^th Annual Meeting and Exhibition last September, and mark your calendar for this year’s milestone annual meeting, Septembe