Chicago

The Illinois Tollway will study converting the central two reversible lanes of the I-90 Kennedy Expressway to toll managed lanes as part of a larger study on using variable pricing to improve performance of the I-90 corridor from Chicago northwest toward Rockford.

A study has found promising toll express lanes on a northwest radial in the Chicago area - reversible lanes on the Kennedy Expressway (I-90/94)  and an extra concurrent lane each direction  on the Jane Addams Tollway (I-90).  Concurrent lanes on the Stephenson Expressway (I-55) a southwestern radial from central Chicago do not look good.

Phil Pagano, 60, executive director of Metra the Chicago commuter rail decided this morning to die rather than face an inquiry into a $56k bonus he'd apparently granted himself last year. That bonus was in addition to his annual salary of $269k.

10. Not enough dead people vote at IOC meetings

9. Obama was distracted by a long 12 minute meeting with general McChrystal

8. Who cares if Obama couldn’t talk the IOC into Chicago? He’ll be able to talk Iran out of nukes.

7. Israel still building settlements

6. Obviously no president would have been able to accomplish this.

5. We’ve been quite clear and said all along that we didn’t want the Olympics.

4. This isn’t about the number of Olympics “lost”, it’s about the number of Olympics “saved” or “created”.

The City of Chicago will reveive an upfront fee of $1,157m for a 75 year concession with a Morgan Stanley (MS) subsidiary for the rights to profits from 36,000 street parking meters. Higher parking fees will be phased in over 5 years. After that fee increases will be subject to City approval.

Citi Infrastructure Investors (Citi) who were 41% of the partnership with Abertis that didn't get the Pennsylvania Turnpike have just got Midway Airport, the #2 airport in Chicago under a 99 year concession with the City of Chicago for $2.52 billion. Concessions on airports in the US are even rarer than on tollroads.

Northwest Indiana and parts of the Chicago area got a foot of rain (300mm) and suffered severe floods starting Sept 14. The Little Calumet River overflowed its banks. Despite the recent completion of a major rebuild the Borman Expressway I-80/94, the major area freeway was put out of service for five days by the floods, and the Indiana Toll Road was called on to provide relief.

Timothy W Martin secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation 2003-2007, now a senior VP of CTE/Aecom said at a conference recently that Chicago doesn't need toll express lanes because it has something better - passenger rail lines in expressway medians. They carry far more people than the same space devoted to highway lanes, he claimed.

This is nonsense, but it's commonly held nonsense. An urban myth.