Illinois is in line to receive nearly $1.4 billion in federal funding over five years to help upgrade the state’s deteriorating bridges, the Biden administration announced Friday.
The funding, which comes from the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan President Joe Biden signed into law in November, is just a portion of the roughly $17 billion the state is expected to receive from the overall package. It should provide a boost to a state that has more than 2,300 bridges rated in “poor” condition, according to federal data, the third-largest total among all 50 states.
The money comes on top of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s ongoing “Rebuild Illinois” construction program, a six-year, $45 billion effort to improve the state’s roads, bridges, rails and public buildings. The state will receive nearly $275 million in the first year.
The Interstate 80 bridge over the Des Plaines River in Joliet on April 1, 2021. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Democratic members of the Illinois congressional delegation held a news conference Friday morning at the site of one potential project: the Rand Road bridge over the Des Plaines River in northwest suburban Des Plaines.
The bridge, which sits on the border between the districts of U.S. Reps. Jan Schakowsy of Evanston and Brad Schneider of Deerfield, is in poor condition and needs to be replaced, at a cost of more than $12 million, according to IDOT’s most recent multiyear plan.
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“Nothing has been actually settled (regarding) what bridges are going to be covered, but you can see from the turnout today that there’s a lot of representation for this particular bridge,” Schakowsky said. “And we’re going to try and make sure that this bridge is off of the poor condition list and made safe for everyone who drives across.”
While members of Congress and local officials hope some of the money goes toward this particular project, “there is no shortage of bridges we could have gone to in our district or across the state that are going to benefit from the money that’s coming in,” Schneider said in an interview Thursday.
The federal program, which will distribute $26.5 billion nationwide over five years to upgrade 15,000 bridges, is the largest investment in the nation’s bridges since the creation of the interstate highway system, according to the White House.
It will be followed by a $12.5 billion competitive grant program targeting the nation’s most economically significant bridges.
The funding announced Friday is intended to spur improvements to bridges under the jurisdiction of counties and local governments. Rather than requiring state and local governments to provide 20% of the funding, as is typically the case, this program allows projects to be paid for entirely with federal funds.
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This federal investment “is going to have immediate impact, create quality jobs and improve the lives in every one of our communities,” Schneider said.
Through Pritzker’s infrastructure plan, the Illinois Department of Transportation already has plans to upgrade 170 bridges across the state during the current budget year, Stephen Travia, the agency’s director of highways project implementation, said Friday.
“We will be able to move more bridges into our program as a result of this investment,” Travia said.
IDOT will review how far along bridges are in the engineering phase before determining which projects can be paid for with the federal funds in the current year, he said.
“The bridge we are standing right next to is in the nearest part of our multiyear program,” Travia said. “It is something we would hope we could move forward into the next fiscal year based on a couple of factors, but it is it is virtually ready to go.”
While the overall infrastructure bill was approved with a small number of GOP votes, only one of Illinois’ five congressional Republicans, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Channahon, voted in favor.
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
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