Drivers to pay $1.90 on completed Elgin-O'Hare tollway

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Drivers who use the Elgin-O'Hare Expressway may be in for some sticker shock when it's extended and converted to a tollway.

The tolls for the east-west portion of the Elgin-O'Hare Western Access Project are based on a rate of 20-cents per mile. It will cost $1.90 to travel the 10-mile stretch, making it the most expensive passenger-car ride in the state's tollway system, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Rates for trucks will be set next year.

The first section from Lake Street to I-290 is scheduled to be done late next year, with toll collection expected to begin in 2016. The second section from I-290 to Busse Road is scheduled to be done in 2017.

The new tollway will be entirely electronic. Only the I-Pass and E-Z Pass transponders will be accepted. That means drivers will not be able to pay with cash. However, customers without transponders can pay their tolls online, according to the Illinois Tollway.

The Tollway says the 20-cent per mile passenger vehicle toll rate is consistent with the recommendation made by outgoing Governor Pat Quinn's Elgin O'Hare Western Access Advisory Council and presented during public hearings for its 15-year, $12-billion capital program dubbed Move Illinois: The Illinois Tollway Driving the Future.

Details regarding the north-south portion of the Elgin O'Hare Western Access Project will be developed with the future design of that roadway, Tollway officials say.