Illinois’ massive Rebuild Illinois capital plan is looking less like routine road work and more like a heavyweight economic engine. A new statewide analysis says the six-year program delivered a nearly 200% return on investment, supported about 40,000 jobs a year, and pumped hundreds of millions of dollars back into state and local government budgets. The gains landed heavily in the Chicago region, where contractors and local businesses have been busy keeping up with the construction boom.
The findings come from a report released July 15 by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute. Commissioned by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Illinois, the study leans on data from the Illinois Department of Revenue, the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, plus industry-standard IMPLAN modeling, to tally up the fallout from roughly $30 billion in transportation work. The institute calculates that Rebuild Illinois produced a near-200% economic return, generated or preserved nearly 40,000 jobs per year, and lifted combined state and local tax revenues by around $400 million.
Lawmakers approved Rebuild Illinois in June 2019 as the state’s largest-ever multi-year capital plan, a roughly $45 billion, six-year package that set aside more than $33 billion for transportation projects, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. IDOT program dashboards since then show a sharp jump in lane-mile resurfacing, bridge work and safety upgrades as state bond proceeds and federal dollars flowed into construction contracts.
Local TV quickly picked up on the report. FOX 32 Chicago aired a segment featuring Illinois Economic Policy Institute economist Frank Manzo breaking down the numbers and their ripple effects for jobs and local suppliers. Manzo told the station the report connects construction spending to follow-on dollars that end up with retailers, restaurants, hotels and public coffers.
How the researchers reached the number
Researchers tracked actual project spending from 2020 through 2025, then ran the totals through IMPLAN economic-impact modeling to capture direct, supply-chain and so-called induced effects. That is how the Illinois Economic Policy Institute turned billions in transportation contracts into estimates of jobs, economic output and tax revenue in regions across the state. The Illinois Economic Policy Institute report details the modeling assumptions and regional breakdowns.
Funding headwinds ahead
The upbeat headline numbers come with a warning label. The report notes that the benefits are not guaranteed to repeat in future capital plans. State budget pressures, more fuel-efficient vehicles and accelerating electric-vehicle adoption could eat into the motor-fuel tax revenues that pay for much of Illinois’ road and bridge work.
The Illinois Department of Transportation has already flagged this problem in its revenue-options work, outlining significant potential long-term gaps in motor-fuel and vehicle registration receipts under higher EV adoption scenarios. Policymakers will have to wrestle with those projections when they design whatever comes after Rebuild Illinois. An Illinois Department of Transportation memo lays out the electric-vehicle scenarios and revenue estimates in detail.
The stakes are particularly high in the Chicago metropolitan area, which the Illinois Economic Policy Institute estimates received roughly half of all Rebuild Illinois spending. That surge helped fuel local rehabilitation work and expanded apprenticeship opportunities in the building trades. Industry groups have welcomed the findings while stressing the report’s main caution: Rebuild Illinois was a meaningful down payment, not a finish line, and sustained funding plus workforce investments will be needed to keep projects and paychecks rolling. ACEC Illinois has argued the study underscores the payoff from long-term commitments to infrastructure.
