Cars may have to take u-turns at the Perryville Road Bridge longer then expected. Construction was supposed to be finished this fall, but the state budget impasse may force IDOT to shut down some of its summer work by next week

Workers nearby at Kegel Harley Davidson say the closure has hurt their day to day operations. Owner Mark Kegel says, “We used it mainly for test driving the motorcycles when they come out of the service department we have one guy that rides bike and his job it was to go down Perryville because there’s no traffic down there, so now he has to go by the mall where it’s tons of traffic.”

It is one of four projects being done by the Winnebago County Highway Department that won’t wrap up sooner than later.

Drivers could continue to see one lane at Bell School Road and East State Street for the time being, the bridge near Cunningham and Meridian would stay closed, and construction crews may not get a chance to put in a left turn lane at the forest hills road and pepper drive intersection.

County Engineer Joe Vanderwerff says, “Depending on how long it takes for this situation to clear up or one another will depend on even if we have a chance to finish it this year.”

The construction halt will also put people out of work. Vanderwerff says, “There’s gonna be a number of construction employees laid off in the middle of our construction season, so in the middle of the fact that it doesn’t help businesses, it doesn’t help our economy.”

There are more than 800 active projects across the Land of Lincoln. The state has the money from federal funding, state gas taxes, and other sources, but State Senator Dave Syverson says getting Illinois lawmakers to agree to release the money has been difficult.

He says, “The money is there, so we don’t need to find money elsewhere, it’s just that the authority to spend that money has to be granted.”

Governor Rauner is hoping to pass a stop gap spending bill to help fund IDOT.