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Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) joined state and local leaders, labor and transportation stakeholders on Oct. 1, 2025, to announce the largest multi-year program to build and repair infrastructure in state history: $50.6 billion over six years, continuing an unprecedented investment in safety, mobility and quality of life made possible by the Governor's Rebuild Illinois capital program.
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The new program, spread across all modes of transportation and touching every Illinois county, also includes $400 million to support 223 local projects. These projects, ranging from street and transit upgrades to bike and pedestrian improvements, are based on priorities submitted by counties, cities, townships, transit districts and other local agencies.
"Today, I'm proud to launch the latest roadmap — the largest in the history of the Illinois Department of Transportation," said Pritzker. "Over the next six years, we'll continue investing across the board to build the best infrastructure system in the nation — and create good jobs for Illinoisans in the process. From Chicago and Rockford to Springfield and Decatur, to Carbondale and Metropolis, every corner of our great state will benefit."
Continuing an approach started under Gov. Pritzker, IDOT's new multi-year program is both comprehensive and multimodal, with investments in roads and bridges, aviation, transit, freight and passenger rail, waterways and bicycle and pedestrian accommodations. Projects are across state and local jurisdictions and in all 102 counties. The $50.6 billion eclipses the previous record of $41.4 billion set last year.
"Under Gov. Pritzker, our investments in transportation are doing more than ever to connect people to the meaningful destinations in their lives," said Illinois Transportation Secretary Gia Biagi. "This new multi-year construction program will not only create jobs and economic opportunity, but it will also improve quality of life in Illinois — making it easier to walk and bike, catch a bus, deliver goods and get you safely from where you are to where you need to be."
The Fiscal Year 2026-31 Proposed Highway and Multimodal Improvement Program will invest $32.5 billion in state and local roads and bridges, with $5.5 billion identified for the current fiscal year. A total of $18.1 billion is programmed for other modes, which includes $13.8 billion for transit, $2.9 billion for freight and passenger rail, $1.2 billion for aviation and $200 million for ports and waterways.
On the highways side, the program will build or improve 7,107 lane mi. of roads and 8.4 million sq. ft. of bridge deck on the state system, with $6.8 billion identified for 1,654 lane mi. and more than 1.3 million sq. ft. of bridge deck overseen by local governments.
New to this year's multi-year program is $400 million made available through special legislative appropriation and signed by Gov. Pritzker to help address local transportation needs, with consideration given to disadvantaged or economically distressed communities. Of the 223 awards, 177 are for roads; 34 for bike and pedestrian improvements; 10 for transit; and two for ports. All projects required a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise goal to uplift small, local minority- and women-owned firms.
To acknowledge and salute the skilled trades that will be delivering the historic program for Illinoisans, Gov. Pritzker announced the new multi-year program at the training center for the Laborers International Union of North America on Chicago's West Side. Under his administration, labor has been making transformational impacts to infrastructure throughout the state through the bipartisan Rebuild Illinois capital program, which has completed approximately $20.8 billion of improvements statewide on 21,309 lane mi. of highway, 815 bridges and 1,181 additional safety improvements.
Passed in 2019, Gov. Pritzker's Rebuild Illinois is not only the largest capital program in state history, but also the first one that touches all modes of Illinois transportation: roads and bridges, transit, waterways, freight and passenger rail, aviation and bicycle and pedestrian accommodations.
