It’s almost the 4th of July, the best holiday of the year, and Illinois received a credit upgrade. That’s cause for some celebrating this weekend!
TRIP Report Released: Illinois’ Performance? Meh.
The influential TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit, report was recently released looking at the conditions of the nation’s infrastructure. It also compares the states against one another to take stock of our relative performance. Illinois’ rankings? Not so great. If you look at this like school rankings, my mom would have taken away my Nintendo for this type of performance. True story, I once received my only “C” in penmanship as a 3rd grader and my parents still bring it up…
Let’s take a quick look at the numbers:
- Illinois ranks 3rd in the number of bridges that are structurally deficient
- Illinois ranks 15th for “interstate pavement in poor condition”
- 36% of Illinois urban Interstate highways are considered congested during peak hours
Illinois Chamber CEO Todd Maisch had the following comment: “Illinois is a hub in our nation’s transportation network. Even more, transportation in all forms is vital to the health of the Illinois economy and Illinois business. The TRIP report clearly shows a decline in the condition of US roadways and bridges and the need for prioritization of this issue on both the state and federal levels. The Chamber believes that a long-term funding solution has to be crafted and new funding mechanisms should be considered for roads and bridges but also for rail, air and waterways. It is crucial that stakeholders and the public see the condition of our U.S. interstate system and the very real needs of Illinois infrastructure.”
ISFAC Holds Meeting with Freight Stakeholders
The Illinois State Freight Advisory Council (ISFAC) held a virtual meeting on Thursday afternoon. Secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation, Omer Osman opened the meeting with an executive report and a status update on Illinois infrastructure, specifically related to the transportation of freight throughout the state. Secretary Osman had served as acting secretary since 2019 but was confirmed as the permanent department head in June, 2021.
Secretary Osman said that the cash-flow from Rebuild Illinois has been critical for the Department’s initiatives which places the Illinois DOT at an advantage over other state transportation departments. Osman also said that IDOT is striving to become a “true” multi-modal agency. IDOT also provided a state and federal legislative update. It was noted that during the Spring legislative session IDOT spent a lot of time amending bills and monitoring bills to ensure they had a positive impact on the state’s transportation system. Some bills discussed include HB 253, HB 1916, and SB 1770.
The meeting featured a period for open discussion for stakeholders to provide project updates and ask questions. During the open discussion it was revealed that regional truck traffic has increased substantially since the beginning of the pandemic, driven partially by increased e-commerce demands. A number of grade crossing upgrades across the state were also mentioned.
A section of the meeting was devoted to the Port Facilities Capital Program. There were 23 applications for the program with requests amounting to over $283 million. Project awards are expected for Fall of 2021.
Illinois Chamber CREATE Program Letter Received
The Chamber’s Infrastructure Council wrote a letter to US Transportation Secretary Buttigieg asking for federal grant support for a CREATE project at Arch Avenue and Belt Railway of Chicago Grade Separation Project. You can read that letter here.
Our friends at CREATE, including IDOT, Cook County Department of Transportation, CDOT and Association of American Railroads, wrote a nice reply last week that you can see here.
We look forward to closely monitoring this project.
Articles of Interest
Until next time,
Clark
