waggy
No Lifer
Chicago trib
Signs of change in the fast lane
It's education, not politics, tollway says
Published June 19, 2006
Drivers are bombarded by about 25 signs related to toll collection as they get within a mile of each new streamlined plaza on the Illinois tollway system, but one type of sign stands out above the rest.
The big blue signs, stretching over as many as four I-PASS lanes, say: "Open Road Tolling. Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor."
They are the most expensive signs on the tollway system, costing about $15,000 each, according to the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.
More than 90 percent of the signs on the toll roads are made in the toll authority's sign shop and cost as little as about $200 apiece, officials said. It comes out to an economical $10 per square foot on average, they said.
But the $15,000 signs bearing the governor's name are made by a tollway contractor, Western Remac Inc. of Woodridge. The signs, mounted on the steel monotubes above the open-road tolling lanes, require special materials and galvanized brackets that the tollway sign shop cannot install, said tollway spokeswoman Kathleen Cantillon.
"We consider it an important sign," Cantillon said. "The point is to further identify to people that they are using the open-road tolling lanes and for us to establish a really new way to think about open-road tolling."
Open-road tolling allows drivers with I-PASS to pay tolls while remaining on the main highway lanes at the regular speed limit. Vehicles without I-PASS are diverted off the main lanes to pay cash tolls at smaller plazas, then merge back onto the highway.
Whether representing public education or a not-so-subtle form of campaigning, 32 such signs will be posted--at a cost of $480,000--across the 274-mile tollway system when the conversion of 20 traditional mainline plazas to open-road tolling is completed later this year--just in time for the fall election.
here the jackass raises tolls and then waste this much money on a fvckign sign? ugh
Signs of change in the fast lane
It's education, not politics, tollway says
Published June 19, 2006
Drivers are bombarded by about 25 signs related to toll collection as they get within a mile of each new streamlined plaza on the Illinois tollway system, but one type of sign stands out above the rest.
The big blue signs, stretching over as many as four I-PASS lanes, say: "Open Road Tolling. Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor."
They are the most expensive signs on the tollway system, costing about $15,000 each, according to the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.
More than 90 percent of the signs on the toll roads are made in the toll authority's sign shop and cost as little as about $200 apiece, officials said. It comes out to an economical $10 per square foot on average, they said.
But the $15,000 signs bearing the governor's name are made by a tollway contractor, Western Remac Inc. of Woodridge. The signs, mounted on the steel monotubes above the open-road tolling lanes, require special materials and galvanized brackets that the tollway sign shop cannot install, said tollway spokeswoman Kathleen Cantillon.
"We consider it an important sign," Cantillon said. "The point is to further identify to people that they are using the open-road tolling lanes and for us to establish a really new way to think about open-road tolling."
Open-road tolling allows drivers with I-PASS to pay tolls while remaining on the main highway lanes at the regular speed limit. Vehicles without I-PASS are diverted off the main lanes to pay cash tolls at smaller plazas, then merge back onto the highway.
Whether representing public education or a not-so-subtle form of campaigning, 32 such signs will be posted--at a cost of $480,000--across the 274-mile tollway system when the conversion of 20 traditional mainline plazas to open-road tolling is completed later this year--just in time for the fall election.
here the jackass raises tolls and then waste this much money on a fvckign sign? ugh
