Road, rail, bridge program is a must
While this year's freeze-thaw-repeat weather cycle produced a maddening abundance of potholes, those potholes are just a superficial reminder of serious problems with Illinois' transportation infrastructure.
It has been nine years since the Illinois General Assembly last approved a capital investment plan for our now-crumbling highways, bridges, railways and transit systems. The last program has been exhausted, construction companies have gone out of business and skilled workers are idled.
The legislature's inaction jeopardizes billions in federal funding for highway and transit projects the Illinois Congressional Delegation secured for us.
Unless lawmakers agree on a budget that provides more state dollars to prepare projects and guarantees matching funds, Illinois will forfeit that hard-won federal money.
It is time Illinois lawmakers shouldered their responsibility to adequately fund repairs to our aging infrastructure and invest in new, desperately needed transportation capital projects.
We need at least $3 billion in increased annual spending just to maintain and repair our existing roads and bridges.
Beyond maintenance, we must address the state's most pressing transportation needs.
Among those needs are road congestion in rapidly growing Lake, McHenry, Kane and Will counties; the need to return the 100-year-old Chicago Transit Authority system to good repair; and a western access to O'Hare Airport.
We also need railroad underpasses, overpasses and grade-level work to assure better traffic flow and safety while simultaneously allowing more efficient train movement through Chicagoland, the nation's acknowledged freight rail bottleneck.
Creating good paying jobs in the face of a recession makes economic sense.
The U.S. Department of Transportation calculates that for every $1 billion spent on roads and bridges, 47,500 jobs are supported.
Yet, with major projects such as the Dan Ryan renovation, the I-355 extension and the Peoria I-74 rebuild complete, there is little under way.
Currently, the tollway is the only major source of major highway construction jobs in the state, but it doesn't rely on state funding.
No one likes the idea of giving government more taxes, but the deterioration has reached a point where there is no choice. Our government must increase revenues dedicated to transportation projects.
For starters, they can stop diverting money from the state's road fund and ensure user fees go to road and bridge repairs and improvements.
While roads deteriorate, the equivalent of 11 cents of the 19-cent state motor fuel tax gets used for other state government programs.
This unconscionable deceit must stop.
Unfortunately, stopping diversions alone isn't sufficient to close the funding gap.
Anyone who drives a car, crosses a bridge, rides a train or bus, or loses time and money because of Illinois' congested roads and railways understands the urgency for investing in Illinois' transportation infrastructure.
Our future economic growth is at stake.
It's as plain as the potholes we dodge every day.
Douglas L. Whitley
President & CEO
Illinois Chamber
of Commerce