AASHTO Journal, 25 July 2014
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn on Tuesday signed a measure that will invest an additional $1.1 billion into the state’s transportation infrastructure in an effort to upgrade Illinois’ transportation systems, create jobs, and further develop the state’s economy.
“With this investment in our state’s infrastructure, we are immediately putting people to work, making our world-class transportation system even stronger and generating economic development far into the future,” Quinn said in a statement.
House Bill 3794 is estimated by the Governor’s office to deliver approximately 210 road and bridge projects while creating about 14,300 jobs. About $1 billion of that funding will go toward projects in the Illinois Department of Transportation’s fiscal year 2015-2020 Multi-Year Program, while roughly $100 million will help fund municipalities and townships to fix infrastructure at the local level. Upon signing the measure, Quinn also signed a bill that provides bond authorization to fund the transportation infrastructure upgrades. The measure follows Quinn’s “Illinois Jobs Now!” capital construction program, which also sought to create jobs and grow the state’s economy.
IDOT Acting Secretary Erica Borggren said the measure will prove beneficial to the state’s economy.
“After the historic winter we experienced, many of our roads and bridges are in desperate need of attention,” Borggren said. “This construction program is the shot in the arm that our transportation system and our economy needs.”
Additional information on IDOT’s capital projects is available here.