Gov. JB Pritzker nominates Gia Biagi to lead state transportation department

Gov. JB Pritzker has nominated former Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Gia Biagi to lead the state’s Transportation Department.

Biagi led the city’s Transportation Department for nearly four years after being appointed by then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot. She is replacing Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Omer Osman, who is retiring.

Biagi’s appointment as IDOT secretary is pending state Senate approval.

“As my administration continues our ambitious goals to revitalize transportation across the state, I’m excited to appoint Gia Biagi as the next leader of IDOT,” Pritzker said in a news release Tuesday.

Biagi left the city’s Transportation Department in August 2023, early in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration. She had taken heat for Lightfoot’s decision to reduce the ticketing threshold for Chicago speed cameras.

But she also took credit for adding 100 miles of bike lanes and implementing pedestrian safety projects at more than 1,000 high-crash intersections. Biagi also expanded the city’s Divvy bike-share program into every neighborhood and developed a “mobility and economic hardship index” to prioritize infrastructure investments.

After leaving CDOT, she returned to the Chicago architecture firm Studio Gang, where she took a leadership post.

Osman was appointed state transportation secretary by Pritzker in 2019. Osman began his career at IDOT in 1989 as a civil engineer.

Osman oversaw the agency as it began work on the state’s Rebuild Illinois infrastructure bill, which put over $20 billion toward rebuilding the state’s roads and bridges.

In 2023, a state inspector general report accused Osman of violating a state rule by allowing certain employees to delegate duties so they could bypass the state’s revolving door policy. The policy prohibits retiring employees from working with state-connected vendors for one year after they leave the state transportation department.