Rebuild Illinois continues with new $34.6 billion Multi-Year Program

Roads, bridges, transit, rail, airports and ports throughout Illinois will receive $34.6 billion in improvements over the next six years in the latest Multi-Year Program. The program’s release was announced in August at IDOT headquarters in Springfield.

“Since I signed our historic, bipartisan infrastructure program into law, Rebuild Illinois has undertaken a massive transformation of our state’s transportation systems,” said Gov. JB Pritzker. “And today, I am proud to announce IDOT’s new Multi-Year Program for the next six years – with $20 billion going towards transportation investments including 2,500 miles of roads and nearly 10 million square feet of bridge deck and $10 billion going towards our state’s rail and transit systems, airports and ports. At its very core, Rebuild Illinois and this MYP are an investment in our future – one that leads to economic prosperity and environmental sustainability.”

Of the major elements in the program, $6.4 billion will go toward highway reconstruction and preservation, $6.4 billion for bridge improvements, $2 billion for strategic expansion, $2.5 billion for system support such as engineering and land acquisition, and $1.5 billion for safety and system modernizations.

For the first time, road projects that add capacity were evaluated by a new Data-Driven Decisions Tool for selecting critical projects to ensure greater equity and transparency in transportation planning and programming. The FY2023-28 Proposed Highway Improvement Program aims to improve 2,562 miles of roads and nearly 10 million square feet of bridge deck. Of the $24.6 billion over the six years of the highway portion of program, $3.7 billion is identified for the current fiscal year. Included in the program are scores of projects in each of IDOT’s nine highway districts.

Thanks to last year’s passage of the federal Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act, IDOT increased the investment in Illinois roads and bridges in the six-year program by $4 billion. The 2019 Rebuild Illinois capital plan’s framework and investments positioned the department to capitalize on the increased federal commitment and leverage additional funding, which will expedite and optimize infrastructure improvements. The new federal transportation package is expected to contribute almost $16 billion across all modes of Illinois transportation, with the state eligible to compete for billions more in discretionary programs.

In addition to the six-year program for roads and bridges, Gov. Pritzker also released the FY2023-28 Proposed Multimodal Multi-Year Improvement Program. The program identifies a combined federal, state and local investment of $6.5 billion for transit, $2.5 billion for passenger and freight rail, $817 million for aviation, and $150 million for ports.