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Crain's Chicago Business: Illinois infrastructure barely gets a passing grade

March 9, 2017
In the News

The following article was published on March 9, 2017. A link to the article can be found here.

By Greg Hinz

The American Society of Civil Engineers is out with its quadrennial look at the condition of America's roads, bridges, airports and other infrastructure, and you won't be surprised to hear the result: pretty pathetic.

In more scientific concerns, the society graded the condition of the nation's infrastructure as D+, the same as when the group issued a similar report four years ago.

Illinois fares a tad better, but nothing worth bragging about. We get a not-quite-stellar C-, a notch above the national level and better than the D+ we earned in 2010.

In subsectors, the state also tops the nation: In aviation, we get a C+ compared with the national D. That's due in part to continuing big spending at O'Hare and Midway airports.

But the condition of our roads and public transit lines rates a D and D-, respectively. And that's better than the national figure.

Sharing that failing grade are Illinois' inland waterways. With considerable work needed on the state's lock and dam system, the grade is D-.

"Today's rating from the American Society of Civil Engineers validates what we already knew: The condition of America's infrastructure is unacceptable," U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Chicago, said in a statement.

"Investing in our connected infrastructure system is the key to improving quality of life, strengthening our economic competitiveness and securing our leadership in a changing world," added Quigley, a member of the House Appropriations Committee who frequently speaks on such matters.

The new report comes as President Donald Trump talks about a $1 trillion national infrastructure plan and as state lawmakers talk—but just talk—about a new state capital program.

Both initiatives have drawn some fire from fiscal conservatives who say they cannot back new or expanded taxes to pay for the work.

The report's national figures are for 2017; for the state, the engineers last surveyed our infrastructure in 2014.

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