After more than a year on the sidelines, Builders Paving LLC, the Hillside road contractor long shadowed by questions about ties to convicted contractor Sebastian "Sam" Palumbo, is cleared to work again on Illinois Department of Transportation projects. The agency and the company have reached a deal that ends a pause on awards that began during an internal IDOT probe launched in 2024. The agreement lands just as municipalities start asking whether resurfacing and safety projects delayed last year will finally get rolling this construction season.
What the agreement does
In a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times, IDOT said both sides "have reached terms of an agreement" that include dismissing a pending appeal, waiving other claims and allowing contracts that had been on hold to be awarded under guidance for future participation. The department said it prioritized "the integrity of the procurement process and the best interests of taxpayers," but officials declined to spell out what the review uncovered.
Company response and the work ahead
Builders' leadership is treating the agreement as a vindication. Co-executive Ryan Gandy, who runs the company with his wife, Kaitlyn Palumbo Gandy, wrote to employees that the settlement "validates our internal control procedures and strict adherence to job specific specifications," and said the firm will begin reviewing subcontractor pricing, capacities to perform and material and labor plans on 24 pending IDOT contracts, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
A decades-old ban
The Palumbo family's legal troubles reach back decades. Federal court records show Sebastian "Sam" Palumbo and relatives pleaded guilty in a 1999 case involving fraud and underreporting of employee benefit contributions, and those proceedings and later rulings led to debarments that bar Palumbo and certain affiliates from state and federal road projects, according to documents on FindLaw. IDOT's 2024 review centered on whether Palumbo had an undisclosed role in Builders or in affiliated firms such as Orange Crush.
Local projects and setbacks
The pause slowed dozens of resurfacing and maintenance jobs across the Chicago suburbs, leaving local officials unsure when work would actually start. Brookfield officials said the stop put projects in limbo and stoked fears of higher costs from delayed starts, as reported by the Riverside-Brookfield Landmark. At the same time, Palatine's board awarded a $2.9 million resurfacing contract to Builders Paving in February, a move documented by the Daily Herald, illustrating that local work continued even as IDOT held back on state awards.
What to watch this construction season
With spring paving season nearing, municipal engineers and county road officials will be watching to see which paused projects are formally awarded and how quickly crews get to work. IDOT has highlighted the size of its multi-year Rebuild Illinois program and said it looks forward to returning to a full construction season in the state, according to the agency site IDOT. For towns that budgeted for work this spring, the next few weeks will reveal whether projects start on schedule or whether costs climb further.
