SPRINGFIELD – Legislators have $675 million in unanticipated money available to spend on Illinois transit projects but must act quickly if they want to see road-graders moving this spring, supporters said Thursday.

In Illinois, where financial news has rarely been rosy in recent years, backers of roads projects have difficulty understanding the holdup. They money isn't exactly free, but it comes at no additional cost to taxpayers.

Contractors for road-building and bridge repair are hired for the warm-weather construction season beginning in March, officials said, so the window to add projects financed with the nearly no-strings money is sliding shut.