The Illinois Tollway today sold $400 million in senior revenue bonds – the second of two new-money bond issues totaling $800 million in 2015. The Tollway bonds are priced to produce reoffering yields ranging from 2.77 percent to 3.65 percent and yields to maturity ranging from 2.93 percent to 4.25 percent. The bonds were sold as fixed-rate revenue bonds maturing from January 1, 2027 through January 1, 2040.
“Thanks to our strong credit and coverage ratios, the Illinois Tollway is able to use this bond sale to continue moving ahead with our Move Illinois capital program while still keeping the costs of borrowing within our projections,” said Illinois Tollway Executive Director Greg Bedalov. “This sale maintains our solid financial position as we wrap up construction this year and prepare for another year of extensive work in 2016.”
Proceeds from the Series 2015B revenue bonds will partially fund the Illinois Tollway’s 15-year, $12 billion capital program, Move Illinois: The Illinois Tollway Driving the Future, which includes construction of a new, all-electronic interchange to connect the Tri-State Tollway (I-294) to I-57, the $2.5 billion Janes Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90) Rebuilding and Widening Project, the $3.4 billion Elgin O’Hare Western Access Project and other improvements to address the needs of the existing Tollway system.
A portion of the Move Illinois Program is expected to be financed by about $5 billion of revenue bonds and the remainder is expected to be financed by pay-as-you-go revenues. The Tollway’s current financing plan calls for approximately $3 billion in debt to be issued between 2013 and 2017.
“This bond sale demonstrates that our Move Illinois Program is on solid financial ground as we improve and expand our roadways to make traveling more convenient for our customers,” said Illinois Tollway Board Chair Bob Schillerstrom. “These infrastructure investments have allowed the Illinois Tollway projects to support more than 32,000 jobs in the region since the beginning of Move Illinois.”
