Rep. Jeff Keicher | File Photo
Rep. Jeff Keicher | File Photo
State Rep. Jeff Keicher (R-Sycamore) takes pride in seeing the $45 billion Rebuild Illinois capital plan doing the job he envisioned it could.
“The Rebuild Illinois capital plan I supported is continuing to invest in projects here in our region,” Keicher recently posted on Facebook. “It was announced over the weekend that DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport is among the airports set to receive funding for critical needs.”
According to Capital News Illinois, DeKalb Taylor is just one of roughly 100 airports stationed across the state that are on tap to receive state funding from the program over the next few months with the perks ranging from new runways and road relocations to the purchase of mowers and snow removal equipment.
With funding requests being handled by the Illinois Department of Transportation Division of Aeronautics, state grants range from $36,000 for the Illinois Valley Regional Airport in LaSalle County to acquire a tractor with a flex wing mower, to nearly $11.8 million for the Morris Municipal Airport in Grundy County for a crosswinds runway.
With Rebuild Illinois representing the state’s first capital plan in nearly a decade, the plan stands as a multimodal infrastructure package that also extends to roads, bridges, waterways, air travel and rail.
Out of the $45 billion invested in the overall plan, more than two-thirds or $33.2 billion of it is earmarked for transportation work in accordance with the state’s 2016 “lock box” amendment that requires the state to use transportation-related funds for their stated purpose.
According to the Illinois Department of Transportation, the plan is expected to create and support an estimated 540,000 jobs across the state.
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