Event at the South Shore Cultural Center Draws More Than 300 Diverse Businesses

Event at the South Shore Cultural Center Draws More Than 300 Diverse Businesses

The Illinois Tollway hosted a “Seize the Opportunity” information and networking event recently to highlight opportunities for diverse, minority and women-owned companies to make use of the agency’s business assistance and support resources and to learn how to successfully do business with the Tollway as well as other state agencies.

The event, held at the South Shore Cultural Center, provided information about the Tollway’s procurement process, state certification and registration requirements, as well as upcoming contract opportunities for goods, services and roadway construction projects to more than 300 business – including more than 200 that have not previously explored opportunities to work with the Tollway.

“We are expanding our efforts to reach out to and create opportunities for new and diverse companies to join the pool of businesses working for the Tollway,” said Executive Director José Alvarez. “We continue to break down contracts and identify more ways to support small and diverse business success and to help the Tollway complete its Move Illinois capital program as well as serve the 1.6 million customers using our roadways daily, and today we are helping to prepare businesses to seize these opportunities.”

The Illinois Tollway is focused on promoting, assisting and ensuring diverse participation in all aspects of Tollway operations, including construction contracting, consulting and the supply of goods and services. As part of its commitment to increasing the diversity, the Tollway breaks down its contracts to amounts ranging from less than $1 million to more than $100 million so they are accessible to firms of varying sizes, including small and minority-owned businesses.

For example, since launching the $14 billion, 15-year Move Illinois Capital Program in 2012, the Tollway has invested nearly $7.3 billion, with nearly $2 billion of that total committed to small, diverse and veteran-owned firms.

The ”Seize the Opportunity” Event provided firms with direct access to talk with staff from various departments including procurement and compliance, engineering, information technology and operations to gain a better understanding of the opportunities with the Tollway, as well as information on:

• The Move Illinois capital program, including upcoming contracts and highlights of work scheduled for 2020-2026.

• Programs and resources supported by the Tollway’s Department of Diversity and Strategic Department providing technical assistance, training, mentoring and business development opportunities firms.

• Illinois Department of Transportation and Capital Development Board resources and opportunities.

• Information and pre-certification, bonding, insurance needed to bid on Tollway contracts.

For more information, visit the Doing Business section on the Tollway’s website at www.illinoistollway.com.

The Illinois Tollway is a user-fee system that receives no state or federal funds for maintenance and operations. The agency maintains and operates 294 miles of roadways in 12 counties in Northern Illinois, including the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88), the Veterans Memorial Tollway (I-355), the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90), the Tri-State Tollway (I-94/I-294/I-80) and the Illinois Route 390 Tollway.

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