The Illinois Tollway Strategic Planning Committee voted to place the agency's new strategic plan on the full board's July meeting agenda following a presentation by Executive Director Cassandra and Chief of Staff John Donato.

The plan, developed over more than a year through staff workshops, a board retreat and external stakeholder engagement, lays out a new mission, vision and goals and identifies 45 initiatives intended to guide investments, operations and the next capital plan.

Committee members were presented with the plan's structure and implementation approach. Staff described three categories of initiatives—"expand access," "maintain and enhance," and "diversified offerings"—and said initiatives were sequenced into early investments (first three years), ongoing efforts and longer-term transformational work that could take 10 years or more to implement. Examples highlighted in the presentation included increasing interchange access where safe and efficient, citing the I‑390 interchange at County Line Farm Road in Hanover Park as an example of a recent project, and exploring "back office systems as a service" or licensing existing intellectual property as a transformational offering.

John Donato said the strategic plan will inform the agency's annual budget and the next capital plan and described planned implementation steps: a delivery plan for the 45 initiatives, quarterly progress reports to the board, an ambassador program of mid-level managers to support internal adoption, and periodic scenario testing to recalibrate the plan over time.

After the presentation, the committee moved and seconded a motion to place planning item No. 1—the Illinois Tollway Strategic Plan—on the full board agenda for the July meeting with the committee's recommendation. The motion carried on a voice vote; the transcript records the motion as passed but does not specify a roll-call tally.

Earlier in the meeting the committee also approved the minutes of the June 18, 2025, Strategic Planning Committee meeting. The session concluded with no unfinished or new business and an adjournment.

The plan authors thanked WSP (the consulting firm named in the meeting) and Tollway staff for their roles in developing the document. The committee did not adopt the strategic plan itself at this meeting; it forwarded the recommendation for action by the full board at its July meeting.