Illinois taxpayers, commuters dodge $4 billion boondoggle as officials declare Tri-State Tollway expansion project ‘effectively dead’

Illinois is hitting the brakes on an expansion of the Tri-State Tollway—and that’s good news for taxpayers and commuters.

State Rep. Sam Yingling called the project “effectively dead” after officials announced July 12 they would give up their efforts to expand the tollway to five lanes in each direction—and in some places, six. As Illinois PIRG Education Fund warned in “Highway Boondoggles 5,” the $4 billion project would fail to relieve traffic, just as two previous projects had.

“You can’t build your way out of congestion,” said Abe Scarr, Illinois PIRG Education Fund director. “By canceling the wasteful tollway expansion, we have an opportunity to instead build a 21st-century transportation system with less pollution, less gridlock and more public transit options.”

Our national network has profiled 50 wasteful highway projects over the five editions of our “Highway Boondoggles” report. Including the Tri-State Tollway, we’ve now helped stop eight while saving states billions of dollars.

Read the article at the Chicago Tribune.

Photo Caption: The $4 billion Tri-State Tollway widening project was featured in Illinois PIRG Education Fund’s “Highway Boondoggles 5” report. Photo Credit: Ken Lund via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0