Mile Long Bridge project along I-294 reaches milestone; northbound section to open

ABC 7 Eyewitness News Adware Farm ^ | November 20, 2020 | Roz Varon

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

HODGKINS, Ill. (WLS) -- The Illinois Tollway has reached the first milestone in its enormous Mile Long Bridge project.

The northbound section of the new bridge, a stretch of Interstate 294 between 75th Street and La Grange Road, is scheduled to open next week.

Crews started building the new Mile Long Bridge alongside the existing one two years ago. Weather permitting, the northbound section of bridge will open by Wednesday morning.

"We were hoping for the end of the year; clearly we're a month early and want to obviously thank everyone involved, but we're super excited that the bridge itself will be open for the holidays," said José Alvarez, executive director for the Illinois Tollway.

This project is unlike any other the tollway has tackled. Originally built in 1958, the Mile Long Bridge carries traffic on I-294 over two major railroads, three waterways, local roads and a major distribution center for UPS.

The project builds two new side-by-side bridges, adjacent to the existing bridge, with as little disruption to traffic as possible.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Also:

Northbound lanes of Illinois Tollway’s new Mile Long Bridge scheduled to open this week (11/23/20)

ILL.'S MILE LONG BRIDGE OPENING NORTHBOUND IN TIME FOR HOLIDAY WEEKEND (11/25/20)

Fewer Piers Are More for Illinois Tollway's Mile-Long Bridge Replacement (6/29/20)

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING!

[ClearCase_guy]

Mile Long Bridge project along I-294 reaches milestone

So it must be finished, right?

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

I used to drive that every day, but haven’t had to go up that way for a couple of years. Looking forward one of these days to seeing what they’ve done.

[DUMBGRUNT]

They weren’t supposed to be eternal tollways.

In 1953, when the Illinois General Assembly created the Illinois State Toll Highway Commission, it was to borrow money to build highways. The tolls were intended to pay off those bonds. Then the roads were to become freeways, maintained by the gas tax.

But, in 1968, the General Assembly made permanent the Toll Highway Authority, still chartered to borrow money to build highways, but with no expectation of making them free.

The 2010 tollway budget is $696 million. There are more than 1,700 full-time employees, including 754 who collect the money.

In the 1950s, then Governor Bill Stratton convinced the public and legislators that the tollway was temporary. Stratton, now deceased, said in 1989, “Our idea was, at the end of 40 years, when the bonds were paid off, then the tolls would come off.”
https://abc7chicago.com/archive/8327185/#:~:text=In%201953%2C%20when%20the%20Illinois,maintained%20by%20the%20gas%20tax.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Just the northbound span, which will have 5 lanes (as opposed to 4 on the old northbound span), in accordance with the larger project to widen a 22-mile stretch of the tollway west of Chicago.