The elimination of manned toll booths at the Annie Glidden Road and Peace Road ramps has led to the removal of employees, but not to the loss of their jobs.

Taking away the manned toll booths did not result in termination or layoffs, said Jan Kemp, assistant press secretary for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. Employees removed from the Annie Glidden Road ramp were needed to staff the DeKalb mainline toll plaza and were moved to that location, she said.

In addition to the Annie Glidden Road and Peace Road toll plazas, the removal of the manual toll lanes has occurred at multiple locations, including at the North Avenue plaza on Interstate 355 and the O’Hare International Airport plazas on the Tristate, said Joelle McGinnis, press secretary for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.

As with the Annie Glidden Road toll workers, employees at these locations were re-assigned to various plazas in need of additional staffing, Kemp said. Instead of hiring new employees, those removed from manual lanes occupied the open positions at other toll plaza locations, she said.

The new toll system means tollway users entering or exiting any of these toll plazas will need exact change or an I-PASS, McGinnis said.

At the Annie Glidden Road exit/entrance ramp, the manual lanes have been replaced with automatic lanes to reduce congestion, Kemp said. Although the Annie Glidden Road ramp does not have a designated I-PASS lane, I-PASS customers can use the automatic lanes, she said.

“The decision was made because the volume of I-PASS users and exact change customers outweighs the use of manual lanes,” McGinnis said.

The goal is to make entering and exiting the tollway more effective for those using the I-PASS or exact change, McGinnis said. Manual lanes require tollway users to stop for a longer period of time, Kemp added.

“This slows down traffic for everyone,” Kemp said.

As part of the plan to make things more effective, gates only are used at manned stations and never at automatic or unattended lanes, McGinnis said. This allows tollway users to pass through converted plazas quickly.

Because the change has been in effect only since December, McGinnis said it’s too soon to tell if the goal has been met, and she is unaware of any problems that may have emerged since the change.