Road Work in Illinois Resumes After 9-Day Stoppage
Work resumed July 10 at Illinois construction sites after a nine-day halt due to a state budget impasse.
The Illinois General Assembly overturned a July 4 veto by Gov. Bruce Rauner and on July 6 passed the state’s first budget in more than two years.
The state’s regular legislative session ended May 31 without a passed budget. Legislative leaders said they wanted to avoid a “junk” credit rating, and that made passing a budget imperative.
According to The Illinois Department of Transportation, “Work on contracts can now resume. The public is advised to be especially cautious traveling in and around work zones as lane closures are re-established in some locations.”
Illinois has more than 20 construction projects involving truck-friendly Class 1 roads currently taking place, according to IDOT.
The continuation of construction on Illinois roads is crucial for trucking companies, whether based in-state or just passing through.
“We are big proponents of wanting to see the updates and construction take place to help eliminate congestion and bottlenecks,” said David Gibbs, president of McLeod Express, a diversified truckload carrier and warehousing company based in Decatur, Ill.
A four-year construction overhaul of the Jane Byrne interchange for interstates 290, 90 and 94 running through Chicago has been a continuing issue for trucking. According to the American Transportation Research Institute, the bottleneck to traffic in metropolitan Chicago cost road users more than $2 billion in 2015.
Gibbs was pleased the weeklong construction halt did not cause significant disruption, but it was expensive for Illinois.
“The momentary shutdown was not impactful to our business,” he said. However, the shutdown and reopening of construction sites is projected to cost the state around $30 million, according to IDOT.
Some see the new budget as hostile to trucking.
“There is nothing pro-business out of the budget,” Illinois Trucking Association Executive Director Matt Hart said.
He said that he was hoping for changes that would aid the industry. “Workers’ compensation reform and repealing or reforming the commercial compensation fee were left out,” Hart said.
The tax increases in the budget are “bad news” for business and will make it harder to attract trucking companies to the state, he said.
