Governor Quinn Announces $36 Million for Road Construction Projects in St. Clair County

BELLEVILLE - Governor Pat Quinn today announced capital investments of more than $36 million for road construction projects in St. Clair county. The investments will create jobs and improve transportation safety and efficiency. Funded by his Illinois Jobs Now! construction program, the projects are part of Governor Quinn's agenda to create jobs and drive Illinois' economy forward.

"These investments in St. Clair county are putting people to work, creating jobs that will help drive the local economy," Governor Quinn said. "They are also helping to repair and maintain Illinois' infrastructure to improve safety and efficiency throughout the region."

Today's announcement follows last week's news that Illinois' unemployment rate declined in July to 6.8 percent from June's 7.1 percent. During July, 11,200 new private sector jobs were added, including 3,900 manufacturing jobs. The state's unemployment rate has fallen steadily since July 2013, when it stood at 9.2 percent, and has completed its steepest 12-month decline of 2.4 percentage points since August 1984. Since February 2010, Illinois has added 263,100 private sector jobs.

Construction payrolls are up by 8,500 jobs since the beginning of the year, nearly four times as strong as the gain posted for this same period in 2013. Specialty trade contractors' payrolls posted healthy gains for the third straight month, fueled in large part by Governor Quinn's Illinois Jobs Now! capital construction program.

The projects below will be managed by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Improvements will be made to Whessy Road, Shiloh Valley Township Road, Whessy Road Connector and Old Rieder Road Connector. Projects on I-64 include road widening, the construction of a new bridge over I-64, the construction of a diamond interchange at Rieder Road and the realignment of Reider Road. The projects will be done for $36,481,403 by The Kilian Corporation of Mascoutah.

Illinois Route 15 will be patched between Centreville and Shiloh from west of Illinois Route 163 to east of I-255, and Illinois Route 158 will be patched from U.S. 50 to Illinois 161. Keeley & Sons, Inc. of East St. Louis was the lower of two bidders at $556,880.

The projects are part of Governor Quinn's $31 billion Illinois Jobs Now! program, which will support more than 439,000 jobs over six years. Illinois Jobs Now! is the largest construction program in Illinois history, and is one of the largest construction programs in the nation.