Illinois Receives $8.6 Billion in Total IIJA Funds; Governor Says State Is Shovel-Ready

Illinois has received a total of $8.6 billion in IIJA funding to support more than 182 specific projects. Approximately $6.4 billion has been announced for transportation – to invest in roads, bridges, public transit, ports and airports – and roughly $434 million has been announced for clean water.

In addition, the bipartisan law has provided affordable high-speed internet to more than 492,000 households across Illinois.

According to Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, the state is better equipped to use the IIJA funds because of its massive $45 Billion Capital Plan signed into law early summer of 2019.

“Because we passed Rebuild Illinois (years) before (IIJA) was passed, we actually are shovel-ready, we have the resources available,” Pritzker said. “There are a lot of other states that have to come up with those dollars, don't know where they're going to come from. And so we're really in a position to do much more, much more quickly.”

The Rebuild Illinois plan was the first state capital infrastructure plan in nearly a decade.

Over the next six years, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is planning to improve more than 2,500 miles of highway and nearly 10 million square feet of bridge deck as part of the Rebuild Illinois capital program, which is investing $33.2 billion into all modes of transportation.

Accomplishments through year three of Rebuild Illinois included approximately $8.6 billion of improvements statewide on 4,422 miles of highway, 412 bridges, and 621 additional safety improvements.

IDOT Secretary Omer Osman said he’s hopeful that the pace picks up as several large projects move beyond the initial engineering phase. “We are aggressively, aggressively pushing all these projects across the entire state,” he said.

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