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construction can begin. Construction is slated to begin in 2010 but is depending on $49 million to come from the capital
bill.
In the absence of a capital bill, however, closing that $49 million gap could be tough, according to State Rep. Jay
Hoffman, a Democrat from Collinsville.
"Essentially, we have until 2010 to get that done," said Hoffman. "I'm hopeful that, if we don't get a capital bill,
we'll find a way to fund that $49 million. But it certainly would be much easier to fund it through the capital bill.
Without it, we would have to look to the road fund - and to be quite honest with you, the current status of the road fund is
that it's really just a maintenance fund. You can transfer from other projects, you can defer some of the maintenance, but
there are not significant amounts in it for new projects."
Last year, the Illinois Senate passed a $25 billion capital development bill that would be funded by an expansion of
gambling in the state. That bill, however, has stalled in the House, reportedly because Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago)
disapproves of expanding gambling.
Earlier this year, Sens. John Cullerton (D-Chicago) and James Meeks (D-Calumet City) submitted an alternate bill that
would fund a capital development program through an increase in income tax. The sponsors pulled that bill, however, vowing
to bring it back for a vote during the veto session after the November elections. That bill proposed raising the personal
income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent and the corporate rate from 4.8 percent to 8 percent. It would provide $1 billion per
year for capital projects.
On May 20, a new proposal was offered by former U.S. Reps. Glen Poshard and Dennis Hastert. Working at the behest of
Blagojevich, the congressmen laid out a $31 billion capital development program that would be funded by a combination of an
expansion of gambling and leasing the state lottery to private investors. That proposal contains $447 million in it for the
new Mississippi River Bridge project - $254 million in money that has already been earmarked by the state; $164 million of
federal funds which is Illinois' portion of the $239 million federal earmark; and $49 million to close the gap between
previously approved funds and Illinois' share of the project cost.
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At the end of the regular legislative session, however, none of these proposals had been passed by the General Assembly,
leaving the state still $49 million short of the funding necessary.
Despite this shortfall, Lamie is moving full steam ahead on the bridge project based on the agreement that the state of
Illinois made to fund its share of the cost. Under the agreement between the states, Missouri will take the lead on
constructing the new bridge. In May, HNTB Corp. was selected to design the bridge. HNTB is an engineering, architecture
and planning firm based in Kansas City, Mo. with offices in St. Louis. IDOT will be selecting engineers to design the
interchanges on the Illinois side and is moving ahead with land acquisition.
One change that was made to the previous design in order to reduce the price, according to Lamie, is that the realignment
of Interstate 70 is being put off to an undetermined future date.
"The relocated 70 alignment hasn't changed," Lamie said. "It still goes between Gateway International Raceway and the
landfill. But that phase is going to come at some point in the future. Right now, we're going to focus on construction of
the I-64 connector. At some point in the future," added Lamie, "we'll go ahead and build the relocated I-70 alignment."
While Lamie doesn't know where the additional $49 million will come from, she said IDOT is committed to finding it even
if a capital bill is not passed before 2010.
Hoffman said that passing a capital bill has been his number one priority for the past year and a half - and that it
shouldn't be as difficult as it's turning out to be. He agrees with Lamie that it's necessary to move forward on the bridge
project despite the $49 million gap, but that in the absence of a capital bill it will be difficult to come up with that
much money.
"I'm not saying that it definitely will be done through other means if we don't get a capital bill by 2010," Hoffman
said. "There are other ways that you could fund it, but it'll be much more difficult."
vice president/coo: Alan J. Ortbals
email: aortbals@ibjonline.com
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