House Committee Approves Transportation Budget

{Frankfort, Kentucky}...The House Appropriations and Revenue Committee voted 25-2 Tuesday, approving a $4.5 billion transportation budget that would widen interstate highways, expand airports and dredge river ports over the next two years. The bill also appropriates $2.6 billion for two bridges across the Ohio River in Louisville and $200 million to widen the heavily traveled Interstate 65, where numerous fatal traffic crashes have occurred in recent years. Stan Lampe, President of Kentuckians for Better Transportation, heralded the highway appropriations bill as a measure that will improve all modes of travel in the state. Lampe said the bill includes $1 million to dredge silt that is clogging up Kentucky's river ports, $3.2 million to upgrade railroad crossings around the state and $10 million to improve more than 50 of the state's smaller airports.