The state tollway authority likely will seek to sell about $400 million in construction bonds this spring to help pay for the Tri-State Tollway widening and other projects.
”If we issue some bonds for the Tri-State, we can eliminate a toll increase for the near future,” Robert Hickman, executive director of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, said Monday.
Hickman was criticized last year for suggesting that tolls be raised by a dime to 50 cents in most parts of the system. The authority subsequently decided it could get by without an increase.
Bond proceeds also could be used to build or enlarge proposed interchanges near Arlington Heights and Naperville; to rebuild a toll plaza in Deerfield; and to continue repaving the East-West Tollway west of Aurora, Hickman said.
The bond sale proposal probably would be brought before the board of directors of the tollway authority in March, Hickman said.
Hickman attributed the planned bond sale to an earlier decision to complete the Tri-State widening in two years rather than three. That action helped reduce overall project costs but meant bigger cash outlays in each of the next two years.
”When you spend all of the money in two years, it really changes your whole cash flow picture,” Hickman said.
A $400 million bond sale would require about $21 million a year to pay off the bonds, which Hickman said was well within revenues. The authority posted revenues of about $270 million last year, he said.
About half of the bids for the $500 million Tri-State widening have been let, and construction is expected to start this spring, Hickman said.
The project calls for adding a lane in each direction as well as a toll plaza, bridge and ramp improvements, and sound barriers from the Kennedy Expressway to 95th Street, a distance of 23 miles.
Other projects that could benefit from the bond sale include new ramps at Arlington Heights Road for the Northwest Tollway and a new interchange at Winfield Road for the East-West Tollway, Hickman said.
The tollway authority also wants to rebuild the Deerfield Road Plaza, a notorious bottleneck on the Tri-State, and to repave about 60 miles of the East-West Tollway between Aurora and Rock Falls.
