Tollway Building Green

Since the 2005 launch of the $6.3 billion Congestion-Relief Program – Open Roads for a Faster Future – the Tollway has been reducing, recycling and reusing roadway materials across 120 miles of construction systemwide. Highlights include:

• Recycling 100 percent of the old roadway pavement, more than 5 million tons, enough to fill Soldier Field three times.
• Reusing about 230,000 scrap tires in asphalt mixes for new roadway shoulders and pavement.
• Reducing dependency on new materials, saving nearly 4 million barrels of petroleum-based liquid asphalt.        
  "Building Green" has helped the Tollway minimize the environmental impact of new roadway construction by cutting consumption of new materials and decreasing the amount of scrap material disposed of in landfills. In addition it offers the benefit of cost savings by reducing the volume of new construction material purchases and eliminating the need to truck material off and onto construction sites.