Chicago I-55 Revenue Risk P3 Floated

This summer, Illinois DOT expects to select a preferred option for solving congestion on a 25-mile stretch of the Stevenson Expressway (I-55) serving Chicago. Among the solutions being considered is tolled median lanes delivered and operated using a P3 model. A resolution was introduced in the legislature on Feb. 4 allowing consideration of a P3 approach.

No public funds have been identified for the project. Instead, Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Harvard MBA, suggested in a press release that the project would be self-supporting at corridor traffic levels of 170,000 adt. The Illinois DOT project website notes that the scope of work in environmental studies being done by Stantec involves the addition of one lane in each direction within the existing median of I-55 to meet expected 2040 travel demand.