CHICAGO — Would you pay a toll to ride in the fast lane on the Stevenson Expressway?
That is one of the questions the Illinois Department of Transportation is asking itself as it studies whether to add pay-to-drive lanes to a portion of Interstate 55 in and near Chicago.
Gov. Bruce Rauner is in suburban McCook Thursday to discuss the prospect of adding "managed lanes" to the Interstate as a means of alleviating traffic congestion.
The Department of Transportation is considering a plan that would add one toll lane in each direction on the interstate from the Dan Ryan Expressway to where the Stevenson meets I-355 in suburban Lemont, the department has announced on its website.
With Chicago's highway congestion expected to increase between now and 2040, adding an additional pay-to-drive lane in each direction would help alleviate traffic and help raise transportation funds, according to the project overview on IDOT's website.
Under the proposal, existing Stevenson lanes would remain free of tolls, but the state is considering building an additional lane in each direction that could take the form of: a toll lane, a lane for "high-occupancy vehicles" that would not have a toll and one for carpoolers that does have a toll.
The state's studying of toll lanes comes as other major American cities make the move to help alleviate expressway congestion. Florida is considering adding tolls to highways near its major cities, and Dallas has already done so on one of its major freeways.
After a series of public meetings held on the project, the state is now evaluating its plan and studying the proposal. A spokesman for the Illinois Department of Transportation told Crain's Chicago that a decision on whether to add the toll lanes will be made next year, with construction then possibly starting in 2017 and ending in 2018.
