Prairie State Wire

Through funds allocated through the American Jobs Plan, the Biden administration has committed to improving the C- grade Illinois recently received on its infrastructure report card.

The upgrades come at a time when the state is slowed by 2,374 bridges and over 6,218 miles of highway in poor condition, resulting in commute times over the last decade increasing by better than average of 7 percent with each Illinois driver forced to shell out over $600 in costs due to driving on roads in need of repair.

In all, Biden’s plan earmarks in the neighborhood of $600 billion to upgrade the country’s infrastructure and make it more dependable. Of that total, $115 billion is set for transportation infrastructure to make it more resilient. 

In setting aside $85 billion for a public transportation system where more than one out of every five trains and transit vehicles are past the state of useful life, the American Jobs Plan aims to modernize the entire system. Currently, Illinoisans who take public transportation spend an extra 68.3% of their time commuting.  Non-white households are 1.9 times more likely to commute via public transportation than white households.

With the state having experienced 48 extreme weather events at a cost of $50 billion in damages over the last decade, Biden’s plan also is seeking up to $50 billion to improve the resiliency of the infrastructure.