Durbin Meets With Illinois Transportation Coalition, Stresses Importance of Capital Bill

Press Release

Durbin Meets With Illinois Transportation Coalition, Stresses Importance of Capital Bill

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today met with members of the Transportation for Illinois Coalition (TFIC) to discuss the important transportation projects throughout the state and the need for a capital bill. Douglas L. Whitley, TFIC Co-Chair and President and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and Eric Dean, TFIC Vice-Chair and President of the Iron Workers Chicago and Vicinity District Council attended today's meeting.

"Every day that we delay work on roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects, federal funding that was secured for Illinois loses its purchasing power," said Durbin. "Hundreds of critical infrastructure projects are caught up in a political logjam in Springfield and our Illinois economy suffers. It is time for the leaders of the General Assembly to pass a capital bill that will allow the state to immediately take advantage of this federal funding before it loses value."

The State of Illinois has only been able to spend five percent of the federal high priority projects that the Illinois Congressional Delegation secured in the last federal transportation bill. A state capital bill would allow the Illinois Department of Transportation to expedite badly needed transportation projects and better utilize federal funding set aside for Illinois. This increased investment will help address Illinois' aging bridges and infrastructure and move us closer to having the safest, most efficient transportation system in the country.

According to the Transportation for Illinois Coalition, state capital funds for highways are $842 million less than in 2003, a 55 percent reduction. In the absence of a capital bill, a funding lag over the last four years has caused a significant drop in the number of miles of state highways repaired and improved. For example, about 820 miles a year of highways were improved in 2003; we are now down to only 360 miles this year. IDOT has estimated that the miles of roads in bad repair will grow by 50 percent in the next five years.

The TFIC is a diverse organization of statewide and regional business, labor, industry, not-for-profit and governmental groups organized to speak with one voice for all Illinois regarding transportation funding. The mission of the TFIC is to identify critical infrastructure needs in Illinois and advocating a comprehensive approach to meet those needs.

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