illinois tollway

The Illinois Tollway quest for a new executive-director has generated controversy in Chicago and Boston - in Chicago because one of the five announced finalists is Kristi LaFleur, an aide to the state governor Pat Quinn. She is his deputy chief of staff for economic development and recovery. And the Tollway job search has caused a stir in Boston because another finalist is former Massachusetts Turnpike chief Matt Amorello.

Illinois State Toll Highway Administration, commonly known as the Illinois Tollway, is conducting a recruitment for a new executive-director (ED). Applications and resumes are being accepted Feb 8 through 24. The past couple of years have been tumultuous at the Tollway following the impeachment and removal from office of the state governor Rod Blagojevich. (CORRECTION)

Nine people died in traffic accidents on the Illinois Tollway system in 2009, the lowest year's number in the 60 year history of the Chicago area tollroads. Annual traffic deaths have always previously been in the double-digits. In 2008 19 died.

Toll people got a good belly laugh at the Chicago Tribune recently with their headline that referred to TransCore as a "troubled" company. "Tollway sticks with troubled customer-service firm" ran the headline Dec 17.

The Blagojevich fiasco in Illinois continues to play havoc with the Illinois Tollway which is still without a permanent executive director. It is nine months now since the crooked boy-governor's Tollway appointee Brian McPartlin resigned - just ahead of revelation of the US Department of Justice's indictments.

Illinois Tollway this week sold $500m of the Build America Bonds created by the US Government as part of economic "stimulus" efforts. They were 15 and 25 year maturities and were issued at 5.293% for the 2024 securities and 6.184% for the 2035 securities.

Allowing for the standard US BAB subsidy of 35% of interest costs these work out as costing the Tollway 3.44% and 4.02%.

Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (aka Illinois Tollway) and local officials have broken ground on Illinois' first cashless or all-electronic toll interchange - located appropriately close by one of the Chicago area's premier hightech institutions, the Fermi National Lab. The Illinois Tollway has been a leader in implementing open road tolling through the middle of all of its mainline plazas, but all of these retain cash collection on the sides.

Acting executive director of the Illinois Tollway Dawn Catuara has resigned and been replaced by Michael King, the marketing and communications director.

Auction rate political vehicle Rod Blagojevich became a toxic asset following revelations of his profanity-wrapped RFP for President Obama's vacant US Senate seat. At the end of an impeachment process the Illinois State Senate bailed him right out of the governorship, Thursday.

"He's out" was the Chicago Tribune's headline. That was Thursday.

Illinois' Lt Gov Pat Quinn says one of his first moves when he replaces impeached Gov Rod Blagojevich will be to get the Illinois Tollway to take down its signs bignoting the disgraced governor (see example nearby).

Quinn is quoted by the Chicago Tribune as saying the Blagojevich signs on the Tollway are a symbol of pompous and imperial government.

Drivers stranded on the Illinois Tollway during the current deep freeze in the Chicago area have a good chance of getting help quickly. The Tollway is implementing a program which adds eleven patrol vehicles to the 460km (286 mile) tollway system with the prime task of assisting any stranded motorists.

Illinois Tollway spokesman Joelle McGinnis says that Governor Blagojevich was not controlling Tollway contracts and that the Tollway has not been involved in the fundraising by the Governor which got him arrested by the FBI and put under impeachment proceedings by the state legislature.

Illinois Tollway executive-director Jeffrey Dailey resigned Wednesday (Dec 17) after just four weeks in the job, part of the fallout from the dramatic arrest of the state Governor Rod Blagojevich on federal corruption charges.

The Illinois Tollway board voted today to implement the Governor Blagojevich's Congestion Relief Program, Phase Two which includes difficult "Green Lanes." The plan was announced by the Governor's office last month without any known feasibility study, and the Tollway has now taken on the job of making it work.

Illinois Tollway has rolled out a goofy looking icon-figure they're dubbing Captain Tollway. Musclebound, in some kind of boxing attire plus cape in a Superman allusion, the Captain is supposed to help instruct motorists on profound stuff like planning your summer journey by checking on road conditions, the location of service plazas and the standing of your transponder account before setting off.

After a longer than hoped for transition, the Illinois Tollway has its new violations processing system working. The first violations notices in almost a year went out August 21, concentrating on big offenders, a spokesman told us. To start with about a thousand a day violations notices were going out, many of them with long lists of violations.

Now about 5,000 a day are going out.

The Chicago Tribune ran a front pager "Tollway has let cheats off the hook since fall" August 16 that reproduced item by item what we ran here in TOLLROADSnews six days earlier - August 10.

See our piece at

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3071

The story wasn't just a steal.