Sept. 25--A discount is in the offing for toll violators on the new Elgin-O'Hare tollway next summer.
In an effort to be more equitable, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority agreed Thursday to cut penalties in half for missed tolls when the former expressway, now officially known as Illinois Route 390, ceases to be free and starts collecting tolls next summer.
Tollway officials say motorists who use the route but don't have I-Pass transponders might be socked -- and shocked -- because there will be six mainline toll collection points and one tolled ramp along the 10-mile highway.
That amounts to more opportunities for blowing tolls and racking up violation notices than anywhere else on the 286-mile Tollway system, said Shana Whitehead, the Tollway's head of business systems.
The Tollway wants to minimize the pain, she said. "There are people out there who think we like to send out violation notices," Whitehead said. "We do not. It is the last resort."
First-time fines for missed tolls on Illinois 390 will be $10, as opposed to the normal $20. Unpaid fines will escalate to $25 on the highway but remain $50 elsewhere, officials said.
Unlike other tollways, Illinois 390 will be all-electronic, meaning no cash lanes from Hanover Park to Elmhurst. Motorists without I-Pass will have to go online to pay their tolls or pay with cash via the mail or in person at tollway facilities.
Motorists who use I-Pass will pay half the rate of cash users. Trucks will pay at 33 percent of the commercial cash rates, which will be set at six levels depending on the size of the truck and on daytime or overnight travel.
The I-Pass tolls at each of the seven collection points will run from 20 cents to 60 cents for cars, depending on the location. The truck I-Pass tolls will run anywhere from 25 cents to $1.95.
The goal was to keep tolls as equitable as possible for short- and long-distance trips, Whitehead said.
The tolls for the east-west portion of the Elgin-O'Hare are based on a rate of 20 cents per mile, which will make it the most expensive passenger-car ride in the Tollway system. Systemwide, the average toll is 6 cents per mile.
The Elgin-O'Hare was built as a state highway in 1993. But federal and state lawmakers acted in 2013 to allow it to be rebuilt, widened and incorporated into the Tollway system.
The east-west portion will be the first part to be completed as part of the Tollway's $3.4 billion mega project that would skirt O'Hare's western edge.
Critics claim, however, that the project is an extension of an expressway long dismissed as a "road to nowhere" because it connects to neither Elgin nor O'Hare. They also contend that the high tolls may make drivers averse to using it.
rwronski@tribpub.com
