× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

SPRINGFIELD — With the start of the new fiscal year just more than a week away, the Illinois Department of Transportation is preparing to put the brakes on road and transit projects statewide.

The department began notifying contractors this week that they shouldn't start tearing up any roads or closing bridges lanes unless work can be completed by June 30, the final day of the current fiscal year. No work, including engineering, will be able to continue after that unless the General Assembly gives IDOT authority to spend money in the new fiscal year, Transportation Secretary Randy Blankenhorn said Wednesday.

Repeating a message he delivered last week at a Statehouse news conference with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, Blankenhorn urged lawmakers to pass a bill that would allow work to continue.

"The message from last week isn't different," he said. "It's just we're another week that we've gone by without a budget, and this brings this crisis even closer."

Steve Brown, a spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, dismissed the warnings as a "PR stunt" and said House Democrats are "trying to work with the administration on the stopgap budget."