The Chicago Skyway toll jumped 30 cents for passenger vehicles at the beginning of the year.
The toll road from Northwest Indiana to Chicago, which stretches over the Calumet River on Chicago's Southeast Side, now costs $8.10 for passenger vehicles.
In 2004, it only cost $2 to cross the 7.8-mile-long bridge at the border of Hammond and Chicago. But in 2005, then-Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley leased it to a European-Australian joint venture for $1.82 billion.
The toll for two-axle vehicles, including both passenger vehicles and light trucks, on the shortcut into the city jumped from $7.80 to $8.10 on Jan. 1. That's up from $7.20 in 2024.
The toll for three-axle vehicles climbed from $27.20 last year to $28.40 during the peak times between 4 a.m. and 8 p.m., while it went from costing seven-axle vehicles $63.50 last year to $66.10 during peak times. During off-peak hours, the toll rose from $19.30 last year to $20.30 for three-axle vehicles and from $45.40 last year to $47.20 for seven-axle vehicles.
The Chicago Skyway, which takes cash, E-ZPass and online payments, runs from Hammond through Chicago's far South Side to Interstate 94, shortening the length of time to get downtown for some commuters, depending on where they're coming from.
The Chicago Skyway affords sweeping views of Chicago's skyline but was never as popular as the Borman and Dan Ryan expressways most commuters take to drive from Northwest Indiana into the city.
It was built in 1958 as a toll bridge over the Calumet River because of a loophole in Chicago's city charter that allows it to build toll bridges but not toll roads. Northwest Indiana's lakefront casinos brought an increase in traffic when they first arrived in the 1990s, but Gary's Hard Rock Casino just off the toll-free Borman Expressway quickly became the busiest in the Hoosier State.
The City of Chicago ran the Chicago Skyway until the Daley administration gave a 99-year concession agreement to Skyway Concession Co.
In 2022, Sydney, Australia-based Atlas Arteria, which also owns toll roads in France and Germany, acquired a two-thirds stake in the Chicago Skyway for $2.01 billion. It was the third time the lease had changed hands since it was first privatized more than two decades ago.
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