CHICAGO - The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority will begin $900 million of mostly bond-financed toll road improvements and expansions next year, authority officials announced yesterday.
The biggest chunk of the program - a $600 million southern extension of the North-South I-355 Tollway in northeastern Illinois - will involve bonding, while the rest of the program could be paid with cash, according to Nicholas Jannite, the authority's manager of finance.
"What we're looking at for bond financing is primarily for the south extension right now," he said.
He estimated that between $500 million and the full $600 million of bonds backed by toll revenues could be issued next year for the toll road extension project.
He added that an exact schedule for bond issuance is still being worked out.
In the meantime, Jannite's office is preparing to issue a request for proposals for underwriters sometime next month.
"I would hope by February everything will be in place for the financing team," he said.
In addition to the toll road extension bonds, a $135 million current refunding of 1987 bonds is also a possibility, Jannite said. He added that the same financing team could work on the refinancing and any new bond issues sold by the authority over the next couple of years.
Last month, the tollway board chose BA Securities Inc. to serve as the authority's financial adviser for the next three years, following a request for proposals process.
Bonding for the southern extension of I-355 was included in a $2.4 billion bond authorization granted to the tollway authority in 1993 by the Illinois General Assembly.
Tollway officials also announced they would begin studying toll road access into Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, estimated to cost between $800 million and $1 billion, as well as other reconstruction and widening projects on the tollway system.
Next Thursday, the tollway board is expected to vote on a $128.3 million operating budget for the fiscal year that begins Jan. 1. The proposed budget is 2.5% higher than the fiscal 1995 budget.
"We are holding our operation budget increase to less than our revenue increase because we want to dedicate more dollars to our construction program to improve service to our patrons," said authority chairman Julian D'Esposito in a press release. "The increase in the operation budget will provide for more state police, toll collectors, and maintenance personnel to increase the level of service to the motorists who use the tollway system."
