The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board is expected this week to name Jeffrey S. Dailey to fill the executive director's spot left vacant by the departure of Brian McPartlin.
Board chairman John Mitola will submit Dailey's name to the board for a vote at its monthly meeting on Thursday. Dailey previously served as chief engineer at the ISTHA from 2004 to 2007. A statement from the agency said his expertise was instrumental in the development and passage of the authority's four-year-old $6.3 billion capital program.
Dailey currently serves as the assistant executive director of project delivery at the North Texas Tollway Authority. "His proven leadership as chief engineer brought us open road tolling and the south extension of the Veterans Memorial Tollway (I-355) — both on schedule and on budget — and I'm excited to bring his experience back to Illinois," Mitola said in a statement.
If approved, Dailey would start next month.
His hiring comes as the ISTHA will be embarking on a newly announced $1.8 billion bond-financed program to build new interstate-to-interstate interchanges and add bus and ride-sharing commuter lanes to the busiest stretches of the 286-mile toll system. The agency would repay the debt with additional revenue that would be collected from a toll increase for commercial vehicles and single-passenger cars that use the new lanes.
Officials pushed the plan to reduce congestion on the tollways, reduce emissions, and create jobs. The program was portrayed as the second phase of the $6.3 billion congestion-relief program begun in 2004. The new plan is to be considered at the board's meeting next month.
The ISTHA is issuing new-money debt on an as-needed basis through 2010 to finance the $6.3 billion capital program that includes rebuilding of the system. It relies on $3.5 billion of bonding backed by toll revenue.
The tollway authority has a $500 million new-money sale slated for the fall, but the deal's exact timing, size, and structure are still under review, given the credit crunch and recent jump in both variable rates and fixed rates amid the market turmoil.
McPartlin resigned recently to take a position with the construction firm McDonough Associates, which has done work with the authority, but his start date could be delayed because Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is seeking time to review the move. McPartlin needs a waiver from the state ethics commission on the rule that requires state employees to wait a year before taking a job with a company they hired or regulated. Madigan has filed a motion asking the commission to delay its decision so she can review the move.
