Illinois Tollway Brings New Jobs to Illinois

Bridgeway Joins With Illinois Growth Enterprises to Employ Disabled and Veteran Workers in Galesburg and Rockford

Downers Grove, IL - The Illinois Tollway has relocated its license plate image review services to new facilities in Rockford and Galesburg bringing more than 100 new jobs to Illinois and providing employment opportunities for persons with disabilities and veterans. In addition, the move is expected to reduce costs to the Tollway by more than $1 million annually.

Under the new $9.7 million, three-year contract, Bridgeway has the hired new employees for facilities in Galesburg and Rockford to review approximately 46 million license plate images annually as part of the Illinois Tollway’s toll violation enforcement system. The Illinois Tollway’s previous vendor performed these license plate image review services in Texas.

"The Illinois Tollway was committed to bringing jobs back to Illinois when it set out to find a new company to provide these services,” said Illinois Tollway Executive Director Kristi Lafleur. “In addition, our Board of Directors felt it was important to reach out to not-for-profit organizations and provide quality employment opportunities for persons with disabilities and veterans."

This is the first contract that the Illinois Tollway has awarded through Illinois’ State Use Program, which is designed to provide long-term employment opportunities for people working in not-for-profit community rehabilitation facilities. In addition, the Illinois Tollway’s decision to seek image review services from a vendor of this type is unique to the tolling industry, as well as government entities that review violation images. Read more...

Bridgeway Gains Training Room

Galesburg, IL - The new vocational training center at Bridgeway in Hawthorne Centre is being described as a huge improvement over what was the smallest of the five Bridgeway training centers.

Tom Pospeschil, marketing and operations coordinator for BTS, a Bridgeway Corporation, said the old training center "was just a long, narrow area. Now we've got a big, wide open area."

The new center contains about 18,000 square feet and was built by Bond Construction. The workshop area is about 10,000 square feet, with the remaining 8,000 square feet being modern office space for people who work with the employees of the training center. From the outside, the center, which is gray in color, somewhat resembles a school, with the office area similar to the classrooms and the workshop area, with its high ceilings, looking from the outside like a school gym.

"Our company went out and produced this facility," said G.S. Bond of Bond Construction. "We are extremely happy and the customer is happy."

The project had been on the drawing board since 1993 but was delayed over the years for one reason or another. In June 2006 the Knox County Board voted 10-3 in favor of using its tax-exempt status for the $1.8 million bond issue Bridgeway used to build the new training center.

Pospeschil said many more clients will be able to be trained at the new facility. BTS, which is associated with Bridgeway Corporation, operates work centers in Galesburg, Macomb, Kewanee, Pekin and Keokuk, Iowa. According to the Bridgeway Web site, BTS "meets the work quality and individual contract turnaround demands for each customer, while providing vocational and training programs serving over 300 individuals with disabilities and also providing them with subcontract work experience." Read more...