PEORIA MAGAZINE October 2022

Osman grew up in the countryside until age 14, at which point the family moved to Khartoum, Sudan’s capital city, in a metro area of 6 million people. “For me, it was a culture shock,” but it’s where he would graduate from high school, entertain thoughts of medical school, and prepare to further his studies in Bulgaria. Until his father intervened, that is. He "talkedme into going to the U.S.A.,” and soon Osman was on a TWA jet to New York, then New Orleans, then Baton Rouge. He’d take classes to refine his language skills at Louisiana State University, mentored by professors who took a special interest in this “shy guy,” then enroll at Southern University, a historically black college with a fine engineering program. For this self proclaimed student of history, the rest is exactly that. PEORIA BOUND Upon graduation, Osman thought he might be headed back to Sudan. Then a fellow student who’d graduated the year before and gone to work at IDOT returned to Louisiana on a recruiting trip. She put a map of Illinois before him, pointed to the Chicago area, then to Peoria. “That’s a funny name. Where’s Peoria?” Osman asked. “She said, ‘Caterpillar.’ … I said, ‘I want to go to Peoria because of Caterpillar.” The next thing Osman knew, he was interviewing inDistrict 4 Engineer Dale Risinger’s office in Peoria, decked out in his Sunday best – suit, shirt, tie, shoes, $100, all in – when Risinger, who would later be elected a state senator from Peoria, asked the candidates where they saw themselves in five years. “Mr. Risinger, five years from now, if I’m not sitting on that chair of yours, I’ll be somewhere around it,” a nervous Osman somehow found the courage and boldness to blurt out. “Dale started laughing, I started laughing with him,” and they remain friends to this day. Risinger confirms Osman’s recollec tion. “Hewas bright and he had initiative,” and he has earned everything that has come his way, said Risinger, noting the

Omer Osman was instrumental in the reconstruction of I-74/ Murray Baker Bridge

exceptional work he did on the I-74/ Murray Baker Bridge reconstruction, one of the most challenging and ex pensive projects in downstate history. “He is obviously a good guy … and he does a great job,” said Risinger. Not only is the work demanding froma technical perspective, but “it’s a tough job because there’s a lot of politics involved in it, as you might imagine.” RISING THROUGH THE RANKS That interview was 34 years ago. Before long, Osman was moving up the ranks fromplanning to design to on-site construction, working onmajor road and bridge projects such as the expansion of Route 29 north of Chillicothe, all while somehowfinding time to get hismaster’s degree at Bradley University, in 1995. He was involved in the conversations around the completion of the ring road when that was the central Illinois project of the moment, and worked on improvements of the Shade-Lohmann Bridge over I-474, theMcClugage Bridge, and then the granddaddy of them all, the half-billion-dollar Upgrade 74 project that from 2002 to 2006 saw the wholesale reinvention of the interstate andMurray Baker Bridge through Peoria and East Peoria. “That was as complicated a design as I have ever seen,” said Osman, who laughs now about standing beneath the bridgewith another colleaguewhen 180 feet of it was effectively being sawed off “because if that bridge failed, we wanted to die.” He credits Ray LaHood – Peoria’s congressman at the time and later U.S. transportation secretary under President Barack Obama – for making

the project happen. Years later, that stretch of road became Ray LaHood Highway, though Osman jokes – as he often does -- about telling LaHood, “If you get us $500 million, I’ll get you a $200 sign.” “The truth is, that’s one of the safest interstates in the country, and it wasn’t before,” said LaHood. “He (Osman) knew what it takes to get things done. “The interesting thing about Omar, he’s kind of the epitome of the American dream,” said LaHood, who remembers Osman coming to his congressional office to inquire about becoming a U.S. citizen. “He worked his way up … Obviously, Gov. Pritzker saw some real talent in this guy.” On June 1, 2021, Osmanwas confirmed as transportation secretary by the Illinois Senate after serving as acting IDOT director since 2019, assuming responsibility for one of the largest transportation networks in America -- 300,000 lanemiles of roads and bridges, some 80 airports including one of the world’s busiest at Chicago O’Hare, bustling urban mass transit systems, a rail system contributing to 25 percent of the nation’s freight coming through Illinois, and waterway infrastructure. PRIORITIES It’s not easy managing the demands of a large and diverse state – five IDOT regions incorporating nine districts — where virtually every community has a pet project and a strong desire to get help paying for it. How does Osman balance all that? It starts with recognizing that “what works in Chicago does not work in

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