Pritzker announces rebuilding of road and bridges in Illinois
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The Illinois Department of Transportation will work on the projects of rebuilding roads and bridges in Illinois. It is part of the annual multi-year plan of Pritzker’s administration and the IDOT. JB Pritzker and the IDOT announced the road and bridge projects across the state. It will be the first glimpse of the historic Rebuild Illinois capital plan.
The IDOT considered various factors before proposing the rebuilding of the roads and bridges including the condition, frequency of use, crashes, and fatalities. According to the plan, $23.5 billion will be invested for the maintenance, expansion, and preservation of the roads and bridges statewide in the next six years. Illinois has 4212 miles of roadway and 9.2 million square feet of the bridge deck.
Gov. Pritzker said, “These road and bridge projects will create and support hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next five years for hardworking Illinoisans.” He added that the projects would create jobs in every part of the state. Pritzker said that Illinois had some of the most important roads of the United States and their focus was to outlast them. Omer Osman, the acting secretary of the IDOT, said, “In my nearly 30 years at this agency, today might be the most important day in our history.”
Osman called these projects a blueprint for how they Rebuild Illinois. The projects will focus on making the Illinois roads safer and more economical for the generations to come. According to the plan, 75% of the funds would be spent on the reconstruction of the roads and bridges, 16% of the funds would be spent on the expansion of the road network, and the remaining funds would be spent on the improvement of the safety and traffic.
According to the plan, $7.58 billion will be invested in the preservation and reconstruction of the roadway; $4.99 billion will be invested in the repair and replacement of the bridges; $3.08 billion will be invested in the expansion of the roadway; $2.11 billion will be invested in the system support.
