Chicago Tribune
August 30, 2004
GETTING AROUND
Jon Hilkevitch
Federal funding to improve Chicago-area roads and expand transit services is finally on the move.
Final agreement is near on a $299 billion federal transportation spending plan to help pay for highway and mass-transit
projects across the U.S. over the next six years, congressional sources say.
The last multiyear funding plan expired a year ago, and it looked like House and Senate negotiators might not approve
a reauthorization until after the presidential election, delaying major projects and postponing routine maintenance.
But the sources said the $299 billion plan, which the Bush administration has signaled is OK, could be approved
in late September.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and U.S. Rep. William Lipinski (D-Ill.), who retires from Congress this year,
were successful in earmarking funding for dozens of projects in the Chicago region. The long list includes federal
dollars to help build a western-access roadway into O'Hare International Airport, rehabilitate the north-south
section of Wacker Drive, construct the initial phase of the Chicago Transit Authority's Circle Line rail project,
Metra's STAR Line from Joliet to O'Hare and other suburban rail expansion projects.
Hastert's pet project, building the Prairie Parkway beltway in Kane and Kendall Counties connecting Interstate
Highways 80 and 88, is also earmarked for federal funding.
So are two of Lipinski's top transportation projects: a massive modernization of freight railroad infrastructure
in the Chicago region, and a proposed trolley line intended to promote residential and business development along
the Ogden Avenue and Cermak Road corridors. The streetcars would run from the North Riverside Park Mall to Navy
Pier.
Hastert and Lipinski had originally hoped to win approval of a record $375 billion federal bill to rebuild and
expand the nation's transportation network, but the Bush administration opposed the move as being too costly. Such
a funding level would have brought $1.09 in federal support to Illinois for every $1 in motor fuel taxes that the
state sent to Washington. The state currently receives 92 cents from the Feds for each $1 in gasoline taxes sent
to them.
The funding formula in the $299 billion federal package is not expected to increase Illinois' share significantly,
but sources said the myriad funding earmarks for Illinois road and transit projects in the federal bill would help
boost the state's return to near the break-even point.