Where did you go, toll collection machine? Probably in storage, after the Illinois tollway mothballed more than 100 units, which all told cost about $20 million to purchase and maintain.( Marni Pyke | Staff Photographer)
In roughly four years, a fleet of over 100 automatic payment machines along the Illinois tollway has sunk from essential tools to expensive white elephants.
The machines’ short but eventful lifetimes span two different tollway administrations under former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker. Their price tag is more than $20 million, split between purchase and maintenance costs.
Back in early 2017, the tollway board under Rauner decided to replace its aging coin buckets with “more technologically advanced automatic toll payment machines that will provide more payment options and better service to our customers,” spokesman Dan Rozek said at the time.
“The new ATPMs will cost less than $100,000 each and will offer more payment options than the current coin machines, which are at least 20 years old, accept only coins, and are difficult to repair because replacement parts have to be specially manufactured.”
Gradually the new machines popped up across the system from DeKalb to Oak Lawn. But not everyone was happy with the innovations.
In November 2019, the Daily Herald reported that 80 out of 110 machines installed did not provide change to drivers paying in cash. As a result, the agency was overpaid about $152,000.
The new team of tollway leaders appointed by Pritzker stood by the technology, noting that “the ATPMs operate reliably and function well in real-world conditions, with the machines as a whole remaining fully operational more than 99% of the time.”
Read more here.
Leave a Reply