Gia Biagi has been at the wheel of the Illinois Department of Transportation for less than two weeks, but she already is planning to hit the accelerator on construction projects — including the slow-moving Kennedy Expressway headache.
“When we get back out there, you’re going to see folks working all the time,” Biagi told the Sun-Times. “I’ve got my eye on this project, and we’re going to push as hard as we can to get it done as fast as we can.“
Biagi, IDOT’s new acting transportation secretary, quit as commissioner of the city’s Transportation Department shortly after Mayor Brandon Johnson took office, reentering the private sector.
She told the Sun-Times Friday she spent the last nine days downstate touring areas she said will equally benefit from the state’s $33 billion transportation budget this year.
She said IDOT already does quality work and has an impressive budget, thanks to the state legislature and her boss, the governor. But Biagi believes the department can speed up its construction projects.
“Now we really need to focus on schedule. And so we are looking at all the ways that we can expedite getting these projects out the door,” she said.
Biagi said she is watching the Kennedy Expressway construction “like a hawk” — a $150 million project entering its third and final year. The project was delayed last year when it took weeks longer than expected to reopen the reversible lanes. Construction on outbound lanes begins this spring.
“We understand it’s more than just a headache, right? It has big implications for the city as a whole. I’m watching it like a hawk. And we’re going to make sure that this gets done as fast as possible.”
Gov. JB Pritzker appointed Biagi acting transportation secretary in December, a $220,000-a-year post. She is waiting to be approved by the Illinois Senate.
As head of the city’s transportation department, she prioritized improving the safety of roads for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. IDOT’s purview is different than the city’s, overseeing nearly 16,000 miles of state highways, 103 airstrips and 15 ports. But Biagi said she can still focus on safety and tailoring improvements to the areas that need them.
“It’s just a bigger scale, in a lot of ways. And I think there are a lot of similarities in how every neighborhood is a little bit different in Chicago, every community in Illinois is a little bit different,” she said.
Biagi said she does not know when cameras to enforce construction zone speed limits would be reintroduced.
She said the state is open to being engaged in talks about saving Chicago’s inter-city bus depot, as Greyhound hangs on precariously on a month-by-month lease in its West Loop terminal.
Biagi would not say if she endorses bus-only lanes in the planned redesign of North DuSable Lake Shore Drive, a joint city-state effort, but said it is important to listen to community feedback on the “Daniel Burnham-scale” project.
Biagi said she does not worry that federal funds could be plucked from Illinois by President Donald Trump or pending U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
She said she hopes Duffy, a former congressman from Wisconsin, understands the importance of the Midwest for transportation.