Kane County Chair Corinne Pierog says she will focus her near-term efforts on pushing for a combination of state and county funds to eliminate a toll for the Longmeadow Parkway.
The next few months may decide the ultimate fate of the toll portion of the Longmeadow Parkway.
Kane County Chair Corinne Pierog said during a virtual state-of-the-county address Friday she will focus her near-term efforts “with fire in my belly” on pushing for a combination of state and county funds to eliminate the toll before the entire parkway opens to traffic.
Soil contaminated with lead is the only remaining delay in finishing the 5.6-mile corridor on the northern end of Kane County.
Kane County Division of Transportation officials have a new plan to clean up that dirt and finish the project by the fall of 2024. If more money for Longmeadow is found by then, it will become the only locally operated bridge with a toll in the entire state.
The toll was planned because Kane County officials couldn’t get enough state or federal funds in the ramp-up to construction to avoid borrowing money, via a bond, to fund the project. The total bond payment is about $35 million.
The bond seemed to make the need for a toll to pay off that debt inevitable after county officials failed to squeeze any more cash out of the state to pay off the bond as construction began. But state lawmakers included $17.5 million for Longmeadow in the current budget.
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Related: “$14 million lead contamination plan would open Longmeadow Parkway next year”