Illinois Tollway oasis

The four (formerly seven) oases offer food and gasoline vendors and are found in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, DeKalb, and Belvidere.

[5] These facilities in Illinois have gas stations (Mobil) with 24-hour automated car washes, fast food restaurants (McDonald's, Panda Express, Subway, etc.)

[9] The Illinois Department of Transportation has proposed a route for a new limited access highway on the west side of O'Hare Airport which would connect with the Jane Addams Tollway at the site of the Des Plaines Oasis.

[10] As such, the Des Plaines Oasis was closed on March 16, 2014; this allowed vendor contents to be removed and demolition to proceed.

They featured Standard Oil (Amoco) gas stations and Fred Harvey restaurants, and were something of a novelty in the region—becoming destinations in and of themselves for driving customers.

[17] One of the oases made an appearance on the silver screen when Carrie Fisher attacks The Blues Brothers at the Des Plaines Oasis in the 1980 film.

[citation needed] From 2003 to 2005, an extensive renovation program of the oases was completed, which involved demolishing the old structures down to the bridge deck and replacing them with new buildings.

The steel truss design also has greater roof height (nearly 30 feet or 9.1 metres) than the old buildings, which increases visibility for the oases.

This investigation, reported on December 30, 2005, will determine if a conflict of interest existed between the lessees and a political fund-raiser for Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (Antoin Rezko).

DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett had also requested documents pertaining to these leases earlier in 2005.

[21] According to the Chicago Tribune, the Subway restaurants in two oases are managed by the nephew of Tony Rezko, a controversial political fundraiser.

[20] In December 2003, Wilton Partners reportedly gave Rezko's Panda Express franchise a 50% reduction in its rent at the oases.

[23] Further, another food vendor operating in all seven oases who donated to Blagojevich has also received press attention for failure to pay sales taxes and state unemployment insurance.

[19] On December 9, 2009, a truck driver standing at the gas station parking lot of the Belvidere oasis was killed when debris thrown by an explosion at an adjacent factory struck him.