Great Lakes Region

The Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration Great Lakes Region is a civilian sub-agency within the FAA that administers aviation infrastructure funding and contracts across the five-state Great Lakes region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin), focusing on airport development, safety improvements, and regional transportation connectivity.

The Great Lakes Region operates a heavily grant-funded portfolio with minimal contract activity. Contract awards total 720 cumulative awards worth $570.4 million in combined potential value since 2003, with only $196.4 million obligated to date. Recent contract activity has essentially ceased: the region closed one award in 2024 worth $28 thousand, and activity declined sharply from 46 awards in 2016 to single-digit or zero awards in 2017 through 2019. Among recent awardees, Resion LLC is the sole recorded prime contractor over the last five years. The contract portfolio is highly fragmented across 332 distinct primes, with 83 percent of awards carrying no set-aside designation, 15 percent designated as Total Small Business, and 1 percent each in Competitive 8(a) and 8(a) Sole Source.

Grant funding dominates the region's transactional volume and represents the primary opportunity stream. The region has issued 5,798 cumulative grant awards obligating $10.56 billion in federal dollars (total federal and non-federal share: $11.57 billion) since 2009. Annual grant awards have ranged between 326 and 814 over the last five years, with 623 awards in 2022, 466 in 2023, 519 in 2024, 814 in 2025, and 326 year-to-date in 2026; the most recent grant award closed on 26 August 2026. Grants are distributed across 430 distinct recipients, with recipient concentration moderately concentrated: the top five recipients by award count account for 17 percent of recent awards, while the top five by federal dollars account for 14 percent of obligated federal funds. Michigan Department of Transportation leads by award count with 164 awards and $174.1 million federal dollars, followed by Illinois Department of Transportation (123 awards, $167.2 million) and Wisconsin Department of Transportation (97 awards, $131.1 million). By federal-dollar concentration, City of Chicago ranks first with $471.2 million obligated across 30 awards, followed by Metropolitan Airports Commission ($428.5 million across 59 awards) and Wayne County Airport Authority ($273.8 million across 21 awards). Grant assistance is predominantly Project Grants (83 percent of awards) with a substantial Formula Grant component (17 percent), and minimal Cooperative Agreement activity (0 percent).