Highway bill has goodies
Friday, July 29, 2005
Printable FormatPEORIA JOURNAL STAR (COPLEY)
By Dori Meinert
Congress poised to pass massive transportation package that contains Tri-County projects
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congress is poised to give final approval to a $286.5 billion, five-year transportation program this week, including more than $1 billion a year for Illinois highway and bridge projects.
For Peoria, the bill would provide $800,000 for a parking garage Downtown, as well as $2.4 million for a study and land acquisition for the so-called eastern Peoria bypass, or "ring road," that includes a new Illinois River bridge at Mossville.
The House was expected to approve a House-Senate compromise bill containing the funding late Thursday or early today. The Senate also was planning to vote on it before leaving for the August recess.
"This bill will provide much-needed and long-overdue investments in transportation in Illinois," said Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who was a member of the House-Senate conference committee that worked out the compromise.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said, "This transportation bill makes a significant investment in highways and transit infrastructure that is so important to communities across the state."
Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Peoria, said, "This investment in the infrastructure of our state will put people to work, increasing tax revenue to help address our state's huge budget hole, and helping to move the economy of Illinois in the right direction."
Although the White House had previously threatened to veto the bill because of its cost, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Yorkville, said he expects President Bush will sign the bill.
"We talk about jobs, jobs, jobs. For every billion dollars that is spent in this highway bill over the next - not even five years now - it will create 48,000 jobs in this country," Hastert said.
The compromise reached this week ends nearly a two-year delay in reauthorizing a new transportation program for the nation, a delay that made it difficult for Illinois and other state transportation officials to plan any new major projects. The 1998-2003 transportation program, which totaled $218 billion, was extended 11 times as negotiators sought an agreement.
Last year, the House and Senate approved bills only to bog down in a House-Senate conference.
The House-Senate compromise agreement would send Illinois an additional $1.5 billion in highway funds over the next five years, or 33 percent more than under the previous transportation program, according to figures provided by Illinois' two senators. Illinois would receive $1.236 billion a year, or $309 million more a year than under the current program.
In addition, Illinois transit programs would receive a total of $2.1 billion over five years, increased from the $1.9 billion the state received over six years under the old program, they said.
Some of the state's priorities were funded in the bill as projects of "national significance."
They include $240 million for a new bridge over the Mississippi River near St. Louis and $140 million for a new western access road to O'Hare International Airport.