Illinois State Toll Highway Authority

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) is an instrumentality and administrative agency of the State of Illinois, United States. The roads, as well as the Authority itself, are sometimes referred to as the Illinois Tollway. The system opened in 1958 in the Chicago area, and has subsequently expanded to include the eastern and central sections of Interstate 88 (I-88) extending into the northwestern part of the state. Beginning in 2005, the system was reconstructed to include more lanes and open tolling. Open tolling uses I-Pass transponders to collect revenue as vehicles pass antennas at toll plazas or designated entrance or exit ramps. ISTHA has been linked to political corruption cases which have resulted in the impeachment of an Illinois Governor and turnover of top ISTHA officials. As of 2010, ISTHA maintains and operates 286 miles (460 km) of interstate tollways in 12 counties in Northern Illinois. ISTHA is nearing the end of a $3.6 billion construction program scheduled over 2005 through 2012.

Read more about Illinois State Toll Highway Authority:  Structure, History, Toll Roads, Toll Rates, Toll Collection, Criticism, Construction Projects

Famous quotes containing the words illinois, state, toll, highway and/or authority:

    An Illinois woman has invented a portable house which can be carried about in a cart or expressed to the seashore. It has also folding furniture and a complete camping outfit.
    Lydia Hoyt Farmer (1842–1903)

    Boys, when you see the enemy, fire and then run, and as I am a little lame, I will run now.
    —For the State of Rhode Island, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    The fact that the mental health establishment has equated separation with health, equated women’s morality with soft-heartedness, and placed mothers on the psychological hot seat has taken a toll on modern mothers.
    Ron Taffel (20th century)

    The highway presents an interesting study of American roadside advertising. There are signs that turn like windmills; startling signs that resemble crashed airplanes; signs with glass lettering which blaze forth at night when automobile headlight beams strike them; flashing neon signs; signs painted with professional touch; signs crudely lettered and misspelled.... They extol the virtues of ice creams, shoe creams, cold creams;...
    —For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    America has always been a country of amateurs where the professional, that is to say, the man who claims authority as a member of an élite which knows the law in some field or other, is an object of distrust and resentment.
    —W.H. (Wystan Hugh)