Six-year Illinois road plan includes Perry-area projects
Gov. Pat Quinn unveiled a plan Wednesday to invest nearly $13 billion in Illinois' transportation system, which his administration says will help the state create or retain some 140,000 jobs over six years.
That plan includes these projects for Perry County and the immediate area between Fiscal 2014 and 2019. Most of the local projects are booked within the next year or two. Here is a sampling:
• $600,000 to resurface East Main Street from Washington Street to Hickory Street in downtown Du Quoin, including $80,000 for engineering that complicated project. Fiscal year 2014.
• $350,000 to resurface 2.88 miles of the Old Du Quoin Blacktop beginning at the Park Street road intersection and continuing south to old Illinois Rt. 14, Fiscal year 2014.
• $8,000 in engineering for the resurfacing of Park Street Road from the Perry County line east to Illinois Rt. 148. Fiscal year 2014.
• $400,000 to resurface Rend Lake Dam Road from the lake south to Illinois Rt. 14. Fiscal years 2014-2019.
• $1 million to resurface Pyatt's Road from the Union School Road to Illinois Rt. 13/127 6.5 miles.
• $8,000 for engineering on West St. Louis Street and North and South Walnut in Pinckneyville Laurel Street to mid-block Kaskaskia Street to Water Street and Grant to Mill Street. Fiscal 2015 to 2019.
• $495,000 to install security/deer fencing around the perimeter of the Pinckneyville -- Du Quoin Municipal Airport. Fiscal 2015-2016. Other Southern Illinois airport projects include the removal of a taxiway at the Southern Illinois Airport in Carbondale, construction of a terminal building and reconstruction of a runway at the Williamson County Airport and installation of security fencing around the Benton Municipal Airport.
• There will be ongoing work along Rt. 14 east of Du Quoin, on the north side of the Square in Pinckneyville.
• There are also several road projects in west Franklin County in the Yellow Banks Road area.
• Most of the budgeted funding is for ongoing renovations to Interstate 57 and Interstate 64 in the Mount Vernon area.
Quinn and Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider also highlighted the planned construction of a new Mississippi River bridge at Moline, repairs and upgrades to Interstate 74 in eastern Illinois, repair and replacement of bridges along Interstate 57 in southern Illinois, and improvement of I-55 in the central part of the state, according to the AP.
This edition details work on 2,142 miles of highway and 517 bridges scheduled for repair or replacement. ''We are trying to make sure that we are addressing all of the mobility needs of the state and it's really important that all of those modes work together as one system,'' Schneider said.
The plan ensures that 140,000 construction or related jobs will be retained or created, she said.
Federal money will pay for 57 percent of the six-year program, officials said, with 15 percent from state funds - most of it pay-as-you-go money collected from vehicle registration fees and motor-fuel taxes on each gallon of gasoline and diesel fuel. The rest comes from local government and other sources.
Schneider said 70 percent of the program's funding is reserved for the maintenance of existing roadway as officials confront ''the needs of a system that's pretty much outlived its design life,'' Schneider said.
''A lot of our system maintenance activities are going to run the spectrum between fairly thin overlays to actual reconstruction of what's there, although not necessarily adding capacity,'' IDOT programming engineer Jeff South said.
Bridges are prioritized, Schneider said, and if any bridge falls below ''acceptable or better'' condition before IDOT contractors can get to it, it is limited to a lower weight or closed until they do.