A quick, money-saving way for drivers to pay their tolls and avoid any fees or fines now is as close as their smartphone.

It’s the Official Illinois Tollway App, which lets drivers use their phones or mobile devices to easily update or manage their I-PASS accounts, including adding or purchasing transponders, adding or changing payment methods and managing rental vehicle or new vehicles.

They paint walls, construct offices, lay carpeting and even repair broken door locks at 200 buildings and garages across the Illinois Tollway system.

The 12 carpenters and 4 painters who staff the Tollway’s Carpenter Shop “do it all—whatever needs to be done,” said Chief Facilities Officer Dave Donovan.

What they didn’t do last year was suffer any on-the-job injuries—a notable accomplishment considering the range and complexity of the work they do, as well as the variety of tools they use.

Consultants, contractors and industry partners turned out to join Illinois Tollway at its first Move Illinois Quarterly meeting of 2023 to learn firsthand about the progress of our ongoing capital program and network with each other to consider new possibilities for working together on upcoming projects. The Tollway thanks all of its partners for their continuing role in helping us safely and successfully deliver our capital program.

Senior Project Manager Rick Hanba loves seeing his work as a civil engineer transform from concept to reality. Community Relations Manager Lauren Platt enjoys using her skills to solve a variety of issues in collaboration with others. Their advice for students at Grant Community High School in Fox Lake? A career at the Illinois Tollway offers many exciting possibilities. 

Grant Community High School in Fox Lake invited the Tollway to come talk to students at its annual career fair in March. The fair offered an estimated gathering of approximately 1,000 students the chance to hear from more than 60 representatives of local businesses, government agencies, educational institutions and labor unions to participate in the annual event.

When Jennifer Kelecius and a business partner launched Foundation Mechanics in 2011, they mostly did consulting work for another company, then began doing a variety of smaller construction and landscaping projects.

The firm continued with only a handful of employees until 2016 when Kelecius won an Illinois Tollway contract under a small business set-aside program to serve as the prime contractor on a $1.4 million project to make landscaping improvements along a 30-mile stretch of the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90).