Truck Tolls on Illinois Tollway Will Jump 40% on Jan. 1
Truck tolls on the Illinois Tollway will increase by 40% starting Jan. 1, part of a rate schedule the tollway laid out in 2008 over trucking industry objections.
Under the new schedule, truck tolls will rise an additional 10% in 2016 and another 10% in 2017.
In addition, starting in 2018, tolls for trucks, but not cars, will increase annually by an inflation factor tied to the urban consumer price index.
The tollway consists of the Reagan Memorial Tollway, which carries Interstate 88 traffic; the Veterans Memorial Tollway, carrying I-355; the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway, carrying I-90; and the Tri-State Tollway, carrying interstates 94, 294 and 80.
Rates will be up 60% on all of the segments by 2017. That means a truck with five axles or more that runs, for instance, the 96-mile length of the Reagan Memorial Tollway west from Chicago to Dixon, Illinois., and has an electronic tollway pass will pay a daytime toll of $43.20 and a nighttime toll of $32.50, tollway officials said.
Before the first rate hike Jan. 1, the same truck paid $27 during the day and $20.30 at night.
The tollway board of directors has said the rate increases are needed to pay for improvements and ongoing maintenance.
Trucking leaders in Illinois have said they plan to press Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner — a Republican replacing Democrat Patrick Quinn — and his future appointees to the tollway board to cancel the annual increases due to start in 2018.
