ILLINOIS — The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) announced Thursday that with the passage of the stopgap measure it will proceed as scheduled with its road and bridge construction program.

Workers on IDOT projects will be permitted to be on the job as usual on Friday, July 1, though some work will be suspended due to the need to remove some lane restrictions to accommodate heavier traffic volumes over the holiday weekend.

Without Thursday’s funding agreement, IDOT says it was faced with suspending approximately 800 road and bridge projects statewide worth about $2 billion.

An estimated 25,000 construction workers would have been sent home. In addition to IDOT’s road program, the construction stoppage also would have halted aeronautics, transit and rail projects, including the Chicago-to-St. Louis high-speed rail program. 

With a spending plan in place, IDOT also can proceed with a construction program for the upcoming fiscal year that invests almost $2 billion in the state’s roads and bridges.

Distribution of the share of the state motor fuel tax for local governments, funding for improvements such as repaving local streets, repairing sidewalks and buying salt for winter, will continue uninterrupted.