Life is change, they say, and many of us will be seeing that in 2025. With nearly 300 new state laws to take effect in the new year, there will be change galore.
Including for the aging jalopy, one of the new sleek E-ZPass “sticker tags” replacing its bulky windshield transponder. Vehicle owners who use state tollways for travel with the convenient I-PASS option for toll payments soon will be getting their own barcode scanner as the agency transitions to the sticker option of electronic payment.
I received a cheerful letter just before Christmas from the Downers Grove headquarters of the Illinois Tollway Authority informing me my current squarish-white transponder, “has reached the end of its expected service life.” The tollway, which operates 294 miles of roads across 12 Northern Illinois counties, has moved into Space Age technology with the thin and compact red-white-and-blue stickers.
It was nice of the tollway folks to include the new sticker with the letter, along with instructions on how to activate and register it, and where to place it on the windshield. The tollway suggests recycling the extinct lithium-battery-operated transponder.
At toll agencies across the nation, the so-called sticker tags are being adopted as officials say they are more reliable, less expensive and will last the life of the windshield. Stickers cost less to manufacture, package and distribute.
Turning to an all-electronic and cashless system, the tollway expects to save between $8 and $10 per sticker, compared with the plastic transponders. According to tollway officials, existing transponders will continue to work and drivers will not be required to switch to the I-PASS sticker tag if their clunky one continues to register at open-road tolling sites.
It’s rare a government agency gives you money back, but moving to stickers means we get our $10 original transponder deposit returned and credited to I-PASS accounts. The new stickers also are available at tollway kiosks and Jewel-Osco stores, where there is a service charge.
The switch to stickers will not change toll rates, which range from 45 cents to $1.90, depending on travel mileage, for cars and light trucks with I-PASS accounts. Heavier commercial vehicles are charged a higher toll.
I-PASS pre-pay users are charged 50% less for tolls than those who don’t have an account. The I-PASS/E-ZPass option also is accepted by some other states in the Midwest and on the East Coast.
The tollway also offers pay-by-plate options for local and out-of-state drivers to cover tolls. Those motorists pay a higher rate, and tolls must be paid within 14 days.
If you wonder what happens to those tolls, the tollway’s Board of Directors earlier this month approved a new seven-year, $2 billion capital plan through 2031 for future projects and maintenance to the five roadways on the system: The Tri-State, Jane Addams, Reagan, Veterans and Route 390 tollways.
In a news release, the agency said some $258 million will be spent on interchange work, including the Interstate 355/I-88 interchange in Will County, the state Route 390 tollway at County Farm Road in DuPage County and the I-88 at York Road/22nd Street interchanges in Oak Brook. Improvements will also be made to the Lake-Cook Road bridge over I-94 near Deerfield.
Another $725 million will be spent on bridge reconstruction and widening projects; $532 million on system upgrades and maintenance systemwide; and $485 million for technological investments. The multi-million-dollar reconstruction and widening of the central Tri-State Tollway/I-294 is on schedule for completion in 2025, the agency said in the release.
That’s a far cry from when the original three toll highways — Tri-State, Jane Addams and Reagan — all in the Chicago area were opened in 1958, and tolls were 10 cents and 15 cents per plaza. Those coin-change baskets have been eliminated with open-road tolling, along with cash booths manned by toll collectors.
The last toll booths on a southern section of the Tri-State in Cook County were razed during the summer. Hurrying their demise was the COVID-19 pandemic and the change to automation.
Some may remember at the time state officials promised to do away with the tolls once bonds for the construction of the roads were paid off. Instead, the system was expanded to its current 294 miles, ranging from the Chicago region west to the Mississippi River.
Since then, the tollway system has become a major road network. Over the Christmas holiday, one estimate had the tollways handling nearly two million vehicles. Most of them using I-PASS transponders and soon, changing up to sticker tags.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
sellenews@gmail.com
X: @sellenews
