The Illinois Tollway operates five toll roads throughout 12 counties in Northern Illinois, connecting three international airports, the nation’s second largest rail network, inland ports and seven interstates. WSP is serving as the Illinois Tollway’s required consulting engineer supporting the 15-year, $14 billion Move Illinois Program to ensure the Illinois Tollway system is in good condition while remaining an industry leader in transportation and tolling design and construction.

The Illinois Tollway is a driving force for increasing economic opportunities in the diverse communities it serves. As an economic engine for the region, the Illinois Tollway provides small, diverse and veteran businesses and individuals with opportunities to grow and succeed through training, partnerships and investments in infrastructure.

The Illinois Tollway has been a crucial economic driver for the Chicago area region for more than 60 years. By consistently delivering a safe, reliable transportation system for its customers, the Illinois Tollway continues to facilitate efficient travel for commuters and transport alike. As the Illinois Tollway’s partner, WSP raises the bar for transportation agencies across the country.

The mission of the Illinois Tollway is to provide and promote a safe and efficient system of highways while ensuring the highest possible level of service to its customers. Since 2017, WSP has helped support this mission through a first of it kind constant slope barrier system setting a new safety standard, new temporary concrete barrier, and significant design advancements.

Through the design developed by WSP, the Illinois Tollway became the first transportation agency in the country to deliver a major advancement in highway safety by successfully designing and crash testing a barrier mounted noise abatement wall that meets the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Official’s Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) Test-Level 5 criteria. This new design provides critical safety benefits to the motoring public, roadside workers and first responders, including: accommodating wider and safer shoulder space for disabled vehicles, reduced risk of rollover accidents, shortened accident cleanup time, reduced risk of secondary accidents, and additional clearance for all who use the road.

WSP also led the Illinois Tollway’s efforts to identify a design for a new Temporary Concrete Barrier that meets the new MASH Test-Level 3 requirements. The recently Federal Highway Administration-approved Illinois Tollway Temporary Concrete Barrier Wall significantly reduces deflection when impacted, increasing safety for work and drivers while providing more useable work area for construction activities.

Lastly, WSP continues to lead the Illinois Tollway’s commitment of innovation with forward-thinking design advancements. These efforts are improving safety, service and reliability for all who work and travel along the system, while setting new standards for other agencies to follow. Building information modeling (BIM) is a wholistic approach to design for a shared, digital representation of an Illinois Tollway asset and to transfer that electronic data from design to construction and to asset management. These design practices are transforming the way the Illinois Tollway delivers projects to customers by improving collaboration between design, construction and community stakeholders. BIM design practices represent a dramatic advancement in engineering technology that efficiently create and execute a complete, high-quality digital footprint of the Illinois Tollway. WSP’s efforts today are preparing the Illinois Tollway for the digital delivery models of tomorrow.