The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) has revised its contracting goal for Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs). This follows the department’s re-evaluation of the DBE Program as required by the USDOT Interim Final Ruling issued on October 3, 2025. The revised goal is 14.4 percent. The previous goal was 20.20 percent for federal fiscal years 2023 through 2024.  However, the goal remained practically consistent, when you consider that with the revised goal, 12.4 percent will be met through DBE Conscious Means, and with the previous goal, 12.55 percent was met through DBE Conscious Means.

“DBE Conscious Means” refers to project-specific goals for DBE Contract Participation. “DBE Neutral Means” refers to DBE Contract Participation achieved through general business assistance and programs like the IDOT Mentor-Protégé Initiative.

This consistency in the DBE Conscious goal occurred despite the number of DBEs re-certified by the Illinois Unified Certification Program (ILUCP) dropping significantly, from just over 3,000 to roughly 2,300.

The revised DBE Contract Participation Goal is based on the number of ready, willing and able DBEs in the IDOT market. IDOT used the revised ILUCP DBE Directory to determine the number of DBEs currently certified in the NAICS codes comprising IDOT’s product market for the fiscal years 2017 through 2022. IDOT relied on the Census Bureau's County Business Pattern (CBP) database for the state of Illinois to determine the number of all businesses in the same NAICS codes. It then divided the number of DBEs by the number of all businesses in the CPB dataset. This calculation resulted in an initial DBE percentage, unweighted by IDOT spending patterns, of 2.3 percent.

However, as Brian Hendricks, Deputy Director of IDOT Office of Business and Workforce Diversity, is quick to point out, this is the “unweighted” percentage, and not an “apples-to-apples” calculation. When you consider IDOT spending patterns by NAICS codes, as recommended by USDOT, you get a significantly higher percentage.

IDOT’s product market consists of 51 NAICS codes, with a total prime contract and associated subcontract dollar value of slightly more than $5 Billion.

Hendricks used the NAICS Code for Highway Street and BridgeConstruction to demonstrate how a weighted percentage of DBE availability is calculated, based on IDOT spending patterns. “That [Highway Street and Bridge Construction] accounted for about 65 percent of all of our spending,” he said. “And you look at the availability of DBE firms; 20.4 percent of DBEs are dealing with the NAICS Code that got about 65 percent of the spending. You have a few others. And that's how we calculated a weighted DBE availability of 14.4 percent.”

Other industries in IDOT’s product market with high concentrations of certified DBEs include the following.

·      Specialized Freight and Local Trucking, representing 0.3 percent of IDOT spending and 12 percent DBE availability.

·      Structural Steel and Precast Concrete Contractors, representing 1.8 percent of IDOT spending and 8.6 percent DBE availability.

·      Brick, Stone, and Related Construction Material Merchant Wholesalers, representing 0.3 percent of IDOT spending and 7.5 percent DBE availability.

·      EngineeringServices, representing 2.4 percent of IDOT spending and 6.3 percent DBE availability.

IDOT’s DBE Goal Methodology and the revised DBE Contract Participation Goal were submitted to the USDOT, as required by the Interim Final Ruling. The revised goal has not yet been applied to IDOT federally assisted projects.

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