Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced last week a new $50 Billion Transportation Program to build and repair State of Illinois infrastructure, across all modes of transportation. It is the State’s largest multi-year transportation infrastructure program in history, eclipsing the State’s previous record of $41.4 billion set last year.

The program is made possible by the governor’s Rebuild Illinois Capital Program, authorized by the Illinois General Assembly in 2019. The program will span six years, from 2026 through 2031, and includes a full spectrum of transportation projects, from roads and bridges, aviation, transit, freight and passenger rail, waterways, and bicycle and pedestrian accommodations. Investments will be made across state and local jurisdictions, and in all 102 Illinois counties.

The Fiscal Year 2026-31 Proposed Highway and Multimodal Improvement Program will invest $32.5 billion in state and local roads and bridges, with $5.5 billion identified for the current fiscal year. A total of $18.1 billion is programmed for other modes, which includes $13.8 billion for transit, $2.9 billion for freight and passenger rail, $1.2 billion for aviation, and $200 million for ports and waterways.

Funding for State highway projects includes building or improving 7,107 lane miles of roads and 8.4 million square feet of bridge deck on the state system, with $6.8 billion identified for 1,654 lane miles and more than 1.3 million square feet of bridge deck overseen by local governments.

New to this year’s multi-year program is $400 million to further address local transportation needs, with consideration given to disadvantaged or economically distressed communities. Of the 223 awards in this special allocation, 177 are for roads, 34 for bike and pedestrian improvements, 10 for transit, two for ports.

All projects required a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise goal to uplift small, local minority-and women-owned firms. However, these goals have been suspended following the USDOT Interim Final Ruling to amend the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise DBE Program and the Airport Concessions DBE Program. Minority Entrepreneur was told that while the IDOT DBE Goals and ACDBE Goals still stand, there are no goals attached to projects.

Minority Entrepreneur Staff are talking every day with elected officials, IDOT staff and consultants and will update this article and publish new articles as we learn more details and get new information regarding the fallout from the USDOT Ruling.

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