Illinois road construction projects that were shut down by the budget impasse will get started again sometime next week, now that the legislature has passed a major income tax increase and spending plan.
Illinois had gone 736 days without a budget, and the state told road contractors it would not be able to pay them after June 30. The costs of shutting down 700 projects across the state, maintaining the sites during the work stoppage and then starting work up again could be more than $30 million, based on estimates provided by the Illinois Department of Transportation before June 30.
The exact cost of the shutdown is not yet known. The department had estimated that the total cost of shutting down projects would be about $20 million, plus $2 million a day for each day the projects are discontinued, plus another $2 million to start up again.
The impasse halted projects valued at about $2.3 billion, including work on the Jane Byrne Interchange and the construction of new ramps between I-55 and Lake Shore Drive.
The threat of a shutdown forced contractors to hold off on "destructive work" such as tearing up old asphalt because they may not have been able to finish the job.
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Source: Chicago Tribune
