Stimulus dollars are pouring into road projects around Illinois. And according to an analysis by WBEZ, minority- and women-owned businesses are getting less than 10 percent of the stimulus dollars spent on road projects in the state. That’s even though the state has a goal of giving out 22.77 percent of the money to disadvantaged business enterprises or DBEs.

In a set of about 120 contracts we looked at in depth, we found that black-owned firms—like Mosley Construction in St. Anne, Illinois—were getting less than 2 percent of the work. A few years ago, they won a coveted contract to work on the extension of the Dan Ryan and now contemplate how things have changed.