Nov 18, 2009 10:36 pm US/Central
Taxpayers Paying For Non-Working Electronic Signs
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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This is one of several massive traffic display signs around the city that state taxpayers paid for but have never gotten to use during their commutes because they were never turned on.
CBS
Everyone hates traffic so the state spent millions of our tax dollars on electronic road signs to alert motorists about congestion, alternate routes, even AMBER Alerts. They were put in years ago, but CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini found many of them are not working or haven't even been turned on.
"If they're not going to turn them on, then why even put them up at all?" asked motorist Bill Golcher.
Golcher is fed up with government waste and more than curious as to why an electronic, traffic display sign has never worked.
Golcher is the father of a CBS 2 employee. He alerted the 2 Investigators to the fact that the sign on 159th street just west of Pulaski had been erected more than a year ago, and he has never seen it working.
So we went digging and found the sign is just one of nine massive traffic display signs that state taxpayers paid for but have never gotten to use during their commutes because they were never turned on.
"Personally I don't understand how you can put up a sign and not use it," Golcher said.
The 2 Investigators found each sign cost taxpayers $120,000. Some were installed as long as two years ago. Four signs on the Dan Ryan have been there since 2007. One sign on the Bishop Ford Freeway and another one on Stony Island were put up in 2008.
There was a 10th sign on 159th near Dixie Highway. Tax money was spent putting it up, and spent taking it down when the state realized it was in the way of a road-widening project.
The total price tag for all non-functioning signs so far: $1.2 million.
Golcher's reaction to that number?
"Wow," he said.
Golcher commented on what the sign symbolized to him.
"It's a blatant waste of money. A waste of government money," he said.
CBS 2 asked Andy Shaw, the Executive Director of the Better Government Association, what he thought of the sign situation.
"Governor Quinn ought to tell the people at IDOT to get their acts together and fix the signs now," Shaw said. "It's incompetence, it's inefficiency, and it should be corrected immediately."
The spending isn't over yet. Each sign may cost another $50,000 to be fully operational, for a total of another $500,000.
The Illinois Department of Transportation says the delays have been unfortunate and that they fully anticipate all the signs will finally be up and running by year's end. IDOT blames some delays with finding secure modems that will keep hackers out of the system.
Marisa Kollias, a spokesperson for IDOT said: "IDOT was forced to reconfigure the wiring for the (Dan Ryan) signs due largely to electrical interference from the CTA tracks along the Dan Ryan expressway. While we considered a temporary fix, it was more financially responsible to wait and invest in a permanent solution. Getting the signs up and running is a priority and we are on track to have it done by the end of the year."
They have yet to explain why one sign was put up only to be taken down or why they are having such trouble finding and installing secure networks.
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