Herald-News reports, Houbolt Road Extension JV, a CenterPoint Properties and United Bridge Partners joint venture, will open the Houbolt Road Extension to traffic tomorrow morning. The new toll facility includes a 1.5-mile-long road extension and a 0.4-mile-long bridge over the Des Plaines River in Joliet, Illinois. Its primary purpose is to create a direct route between the CenterPoint Intermodal Center — a major US inland port used by as many as 20,000 commercial trucks per day — and I-80. The joint venture members financed, designed and built the extension (at an initially estimated cost of $200 million) in a public-private partnership with the City of Joliet, which owns the facility and has leased it to the JV for 99 years. The extension is expected to alleviate congestion on nearby secondary roads and carbon emissions from truck operations.
According to a news release by the JV, the extension’s cashless toll collection system will accept I-PASS, E-ZPass and pay-by-plate payments, and rates are tiered based on vehicle class. “For drivers paying with a transponder, the rate for Class 1/passenger/light vehicles is $2.00, Class 2/medium vehicles are $4.00, and Class 3/large vehicles [pay] $8.00.” Pay-by-plate customers will pay a $3.50 administrative fee in addition to their toll. The JV contracted with a Granite/Kraemer joint venture for engineering, procurement and construction; Burns and McDonnell provided the engineering services; TranSystems acted as the owner representative; and A-to-Be USA (a Brisa company) developed and implemented the electronic toll collection system.
“American Journal of Transportation” also covers this story.