Illinois tollway, transit groups sign 'Equity in Infrastructure' pledge

Nine public and private Chicago-area firms Friday joined the Equity in Infrastructure Project to hire more historically underserved firms for capital projects.

The firms include the Illinois Tollway, Regional Transportation Authority and Metra, whose infrastructure programs together total tens of billions. They joined leaders of private firms like Loop Capital Chairman and CEO Jim Reynolds; Parsons President, Infrastructure North America Mark Fialkowski; Turner Construction CEO Peter Davoren; and Koe Sczurk, president of WSP in the U.S.

"These organizations' commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion?particularly in engaging historically underutilized businesses ?is a testament to the national significance of this initiative," EIP, whose motto is "It's not just what we build, it's who builds it," said on LinkedIn.

Chicago Transit Authority was one of the earliest to sign the pledge after EIP was formed. CTA president Dorval Carter is a co-chair of the group. At the EIP signing ceremony Friday, the group heralded the CTA's high-profile $5.3 billion Red Line extension. The largest project in CTA history, the 5.6-mile extension would move the Red Line's South Side terminus from 95th Street to 130th Street. The Federal Transit Administration earlier this month doubled its support, to $764 million from $350 million, in 2025. The FTA has slated $1.973 billion for the project under its Capital Investment Grants program.

EIP launched in April 2022 led by Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington and former U.S. deputy transportation secretary John Porcari. They were inspired in part by the Biden administration's Justice40 order, which commits 40% of federal infrastructure funds to disadvantaged communities and comes amid the record flow of federal dollars under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The project asks for pledges to double the number of contracting opportunities for historically underserved businesses on infrastructure projects that use federal funds. It's part of the group's mission to "build generational wealth and reduce the racial wealth gap by creating more prime, joint venture and equity contracting opportunities for HUBs."

The group is now up to 68 signatories, including transit authorities, airports, ports, water districts, engineering and construction firms and several state departments of transportation. The group on Aug. 29 will travel to Seattle, where Sound Transit and others will sign the pledge.

In March, EIP won a pledge from the nation's largest transit agency, New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The MTA's pledge outlines a commitment to ensure participation on at least $1 billion of work by minority- and women-owned or disadvantaged business enterprise firms every year, award larger contracts to small businesses, expand the pool of MWBE/DBE firms and increase discretionary contracts for design and engineering MWBE firms by 20% during the next five years.

In November, the group snagged commitments from Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Authority and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.