Illinois Governor visits Carbondale to highlight plans for Rebuild Illinois funding
ILLINOIS(KBSI) – Illinois is getting some major improvements. Illinois’s governor announced a huge infrastructure plan that will improve everything from roadways to bridges to airports and will affect every county in the state of Illinois.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker visited Carbondale’s Civic Center today to highlight what state leaders are calling one of the largest infrastructure projects in Illinois’s history.
Pritzker says the 6-year transportation and multimodal infrastructure project will cost $50.6 billion and plans were released by the Illinois Department of Transportation to improve transportation related expenses throughout the state.
“We will continue investing across the board and in order to have the best roads and bridges and airports, more ports and broadband in the nation, and create good jobs for Illinoisans in the process. These private projects are truly statewide, all within our two counties. Everybody is seeing infrastructure improvements” says Pritzker.
Under the plan improvements would be made to every single county in the state of Illinois, with specific amounts going to local transportation needs, state needs, waterways, transit and aviation and more.
The city of Carbondale was awarded nearly $2 million to repave three different traffic corridors in Illinois.
Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Gia Biagi says this will offer big benefits for Southern Illinois.
“Chicago to New Orleans, right? It’s coming and tracks coming right through here. This is a hugely important node and so what we’re trying to do is build on these investments. We invest in the transit. We invest in the roads. You start connecting the dots” says Biagi.
According to Pritzker the southern Illinois area will receive $1.1 billion for improvements to state roads, and bridges.
The funding for the project comes from the states massive capital improvement plan Rebuild Illinois.
