North Cook News

Representative Deanne Mazzochi expressed her concerns about upcoming house bills that’ll address operations at the Illinois Department of Transportation.

“When it comes to the REBUILD Illinois funds, can you understand that when you only manage to allocate $7 billion in three years and you’ve got another $18 billion we would like to see out the door, frankly, it should have been out the door in the last year or two?,” Mazzochi said. “Every year you delay is fewer projects that get done because of the inflationary cycle that we are in.”

Central Illinois Proud reported the House Transportation Regulations, Roads & Bridges Committee heard testimony from IDOT officials regarding financials for the Rebuild Illinois program, which was implemented in 2019.

Mazzochi said she spoke with IDOT officials years ago regarding topics such as improving roads covered in holes, however, hasn’t heard anything since.

“It’s never shown up in an annual plan, nothing,” she said. “There’s a whole host of things that legislators and local municipalities have specifically identified as ‘here are things that are broken or need to be improved or need to be modernized’ and none of them are showing up in your annual plan. So, when the people who are your elected representatives, from the people who are most in tune with where there are problems with transit and roads and bridges in their local areas when their input seems to be getting ignored by IDOT, why would we trust that you’ve got the right criteria and goals that are even leading in your annual plan in the first instance.”

Central Illinois Proud reported that since the beginning of Rebuild Illinois, more than $7 billion has been allocated for roads and bridges.

IDOT’s Fiscal Year 2021-2026 Proposed Highway Improvement Program has $3.15 billion in funding for repairs toward 3,356 miles of state-maintained roads and improvements toward statewide railroad crossing safety. The report noted that funding for this effort does come from gas taxes and motor vehicle registration fees.

Central Illinois Proud reported the committee discussed House Bills 5262, 253 and 4389 during the committee hearing.