SPRINGFIELD -Governor Quinn's budget proposal could detour $250 million in state road funds away from fixing pot holes and resurfacing rough roads towards smoothing over Illinois Department of Transportation employees' pension and health care provisions.
So that must mean Governor Quinn thinks the state's roads are safe and fine, and he thinks it's more important that IDOT employees are happy. Here's the facts:
More than 2,500 miles of roads in the state are deemed unacceptable according to IDOT standards. That's about 15 percent of all state-maintained roads. That number could double by 2018 if nothing is done, bringing the total number of miles of unacceptable state roads to more than 5,000.
So, we wonder, what will happen to this recent announcement from the Governor's office and all those shovel-ready union construction jobs that will be delayed indefinitely??
The Quinn administration says it will repair 2,300 miles of road and 500 bridges over the next six years as it uses the last dollars from a massive public-works program. The Illinois Department of Transportation announced the latest update to its road plan Monday. It calls for spending $9.2 billion by the year 2018.
That includes the last of the money from Illinois Jobs Now, a plan approved three years ago to pump money into construction projects and create hundreds of thousands of jobs. Construction work could decline sharply when the program ends.
IDOT says its latest plan provides $3 billion to rebuild and improve roads, $1.5 to repair or replace bridges, $1.4 billion to relieve traffic congestion and $756 million to build new roads.
More at The Southern.com and 1470 WMBD - Send us pix of your in-need-of-repair streets at info@illinoisreview.com.
