2008 Owner of Year

Tollway Does U-Turn on Infrastructure, Image

By Craig Barner

While warning signs of a crumbling network of road and other infrastructure mount nationwide, the Illinois Tollway has made a U-turn and embarked on an ambitious, $6.3-billion plan to modernize and rebuild its roads for the harried commuters of northeast Illinois.

Under its Congestion-Relief Program, the agency responsible for 286 mi of tollroad has converted each of its 20 barrier-style mainline toll plazas to give motorists the choice of paying electronically via a transponder linked to a bank account or stopping and paying at plazas with barriers.

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The agency also has improved its image and brings a refreshing sense of customer service to its focus. And, it is playing a role in galvanizing support in the Legislature in Springfield for a much-needed capital plan in the Land of Lincoln.

In short, the Tollway is acting before roads and bridges turn to dust. Like a cavalry unit, it is heeding the call to rebuild systems at a time when prominent examples of crumbling infrastructure and loss of life are numerous: an exploding steam pipe in New York City, a busted levee in New Orleans, a collapsed bridge in Minneapolis.

Along with these calamities, words of caution about a looming infrastructure crisis are intensifying from knowledgeable organizations, including the Washington, D.C.-based Associated General Contractors of America and the Reston, Va.-based American Society of Civil Engineers. In fact, the ASCE gave the nation a D letter-grade in 2005 when it issued its most-recent Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, down from a D+ in 2001. Roads worsened, too, also to D from D+. A new report card will be issued in 2009.

The general leading the Tollway’s charge against dilapidated infrastructure is Brian McPartlin. As the agency’s executive director since 2006, McPartlin brings sobriety, skill and urgency to his role in command of an agency with 1,756 employees and annual budget of $670 million. His chief engineer is Paul Kovacs.

“We shouldn’t have to wait for Minneapolis to occur before we take this seriously,” McPartlin says. “I believe infrastructure is crumbling all around us, certainly in this state, and throughout the country. I also know there has not been a consistent effort to fund infrastructure appropriately.

“What is important is that we are demonstrating what capital dollars can effectively do for infrastructure, and that’s what our program is about: restoring, rebuilding, widening and improving what is an aging infrastructure.”

Midwest Construction is naming the Tollway formally, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority its 2008 owner and developer of the year due in part to its vigilance with maintaining the 50-year-old system while also improving it.

“Their challenge is that they are endeavoring on a $6.3-billion program, which means the program is going to be cranking out $800 million to $1 billion in construction a year for an agency previously accustomed to about $100 million a year,” says Tom Valaitis, division director of Woodridge-based V3 Cos., an engineering-consulting firm, and the former expressway construction supervisor for the Illinois Department of Transportation, a sister state agency of the Tollway.

“The work went up about tenfold, and the fear was whether an agency not geared up to run such a large program could handle it. I think they are handling it well and have had great success.”

Bad to Good

Results were essential because of the Tollway’s reputation.

Like a lot of agencies in a state known for its iffy ethics, the Tollway previously had a name for nepotism, says Neil Gray, director of government affairs for the Washington, D.C.-based International Bridge, Tunnel & Turnpike Association, a trade association of toll operators.

“The Illinois governor in the late 1990s (Republican George Ryan) was making strong statements about making the Tollway go away,” he adds.

Moreover, the agency’s primary responsibilities were seen as merely functional: patching potholes, clearing snow and, of course, collecting tolls. The Tollway was not regarded as up to the challenge of overseeing a gigantic capital program.

Adding to doubts was that its most visible face the toll collectors themselves were regarded by some motorists as somewhat ornery and lacking in customer-service skills.

“We knew we had to transform a culture, which had little if any confidence at the time,” McPartlin says.

Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich risked political capital by approving Congestion-Relief and authorizing the sale of bonds in 2004 to fund about half the program, McPartlin says. The other half is funded through operations.

The Tollway went to work shoring its image. Shrewdly, the agency redeveloped its seven over-the-road oases facilities mostly originally built in the 1950s that had long started to look shabby by signing a 25-year agreement with California’s Wilton Partners, a private investor, prior to the start of Congestion-Relief. Wilton expended $120 million to renovate the facilities and brought in a fresh mix of concessionaires. Wilton’s investment is recouped through sublease agreements. The Tollway signed a separate lease with Irving, Texas-based ExxonMobil for 13 gas stations.

Had the deals not been signed “we probably would have torn the oases down,” McPartlin adds.

In fact, the Tollway was so intent on improving its image that it sought feedback from motorists about the oases and incorporated plans based on responses. These include a light-and-airy design, a variety of quality food outlets rather than one, restrooms on both ends, play areas for kids and more.

Further cementing its profile, the Tollway has become deadline oriented with its road and other projects.

“They’re actually telling me the truth,” says Kay Whitlock, vice president of Rosemont-based Christopher B. Burke Engineering and president of the Illinois section of ASCE. “If they say the thing is going to be finished in May, it’s finished in May. With infrastructure projects, it’s hard to keep them on schedule because of weather, delivery of materials and other things.”

Complexity of ‘Congestion’

Even with an enhanced image, the pressure is still on because of the sheer complexity of Congestion-Relief.

Two key elements were completed on time: the conversion of the mainline toll plazas to nonstop, open-road tolling in 2006 for $730 million and the extension of the North-South Tollway 12.5 mi south from Interstate 55 to Interstate 80 to accommodate growth in Will County, also for $730 million, in 2007.

The results are paying dividends. In addition to Midwest Construction’srecognition, the Tollway has won at least 13 industry awards since 2006, including an Engineering Achievement Award from the National Partnership for Highway Quality and a Project Achievement Award from the Construction Management Association of America.

“The commissioners [of the Tollway] recognized the need to continue to upgrade and keep the toll system in the shape it needed to be in,” Whitlock says “They have moved forward pretty bravely.”

Ongoing elements of Congestion-Relief include rebuilding or restoring most of the system and widening “many miles” of existing roads, says Joelle McGinnis, press secretary of the Tollway.

Activity will affect each of the Tollway’s four roads: the 76-mi-long Jane Addams Memorial Tollway, the 18-mi-long North-South Tollway, the 98-mi-long Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway and the 83-mi-long Tri-State Tollway. Work includes reconstruction, adding lanes, rehabilitating/resurfacing, interchange improvements and rubblizing/resurfacing.

Ten projects are under way, and the Tollway has committed $3.6 billion, McGinnis says. The agency is expected to have completed 24 projects by 2016, when Congestion-Relief is projected to finish, though additional projects could be authorized later.

A lot of the credit the Tollway’s turnaround goes to its leadership. Kovacs has been in engineering with the Tollway for nine years and had two stints in the private sector with two Chicago-based engineering firms, T.Y. Lin International and Sargent & Lundy.

McPartlin brings national savvy to the organization in his role as the executive, having served eight years in the administration of President Bill Clinton. His last appointment was as representative for the U.S. Department of Education in the Great Lakes region.

Next, he worked in the private sector as an executive with an organization that sold Internet-based software to school districts to help children meet testing standards.

As part of its turnaround, the Tollway is lobbying legislators in Springfield to pass a $35 billion capital bill called Illinois Works. The state has not had a capital plan since George Ryan’s $6.3 billion Illinois FIRST program expired in 2004.

“We told the Legislature, ‘You must invest in capital. You must invest in your infrastructure,’” McPartlin says.

Meanwhile, the Tollway is looking at other projects not included in the capital plan: the Illiana Connector to join interstates 57 and 65; the Prairie Parkway to connect interstates 88 and 90; western access at O’Hare International Airport; and the Crosstown Expressway connecting O’Hare and the Dan Ryan Expressway. The late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley started pushing the Crosstown in the 1960s, but the idea was dropped by his successor, Jane Byrne.

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