Chicago Skyway Mark IV

The Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge is likely to adopt Mark IV I-PASS tags. The City of Chicago which owns the Skyway has a contract with Amtech for a electronic toll (ET) system, but reports that it would be using Amtech-manufactured passive backscatter tags are apparently wrong. Amtech will do system integration but will supply a Mark IV system and I-PASS-style tags. Amtech did a similar system integration job for New York’s MTA B&T. The Illinois Tollway has offered to allow the Skyway’s customers to make use of the I-PASS enrollment and customer service facilities and the back office accounting. Officials of the two agencies are discussing the details of interoperability. Traditionally city and state agencies tend to be aloof from one another and only work together with difficulty. But both agencies have seen the potential for strong public and media criticism if they do not work together. So they are.

The Skyway (I-90) is an extension of the Indiana Turnpike and is the best entryway into the downtown or Loop area of Chicago from the east. Entirely elevated on steel bridging the 4-lane 1960s facility extends 12.5km (8mi) from the end of the IN Tpke at Hammond IN heading northwest cutting diagonally across the grid system of surface streets in the industrial areas along the lakefront to end at an interchange with I-94. In earlier years it was a financial drain on the city but it is now heavily trafficked.

The Indiana Turnpike is likely to move to introduce ET within the next year and interoperability with that system seems on the cards also.