Trying to Protect Roads Funding
One of the proposals that I fear would take us in the wrong direction is LB 1098. This bill calls for the repeal of the Build Nebraska Act.
The Build Nebraska Act, passed in the previous legislative session, was a major state commitment to fund and improve our state’s roads and infrastructure network.
Nebraska’s previous mechanism for financing existing road projects was woefully inadequate to meet current and future transportation needs. As a member of the Legislature’s Transportation and Telecommunications Committee, I was very aware of the troubling downward trend lines in Nebraska’s ability to finance maintenance and improvements. My colleagues and I devoted three years of study to identify the optimum way of investing the necessary resources to meet our state’s needs.
Earmarked Roads Funds Under Fire
An Omaha senator is among those questioning whether Nebraska can afford to earmark $70 million a year for new highways when there are so many other demands on the state’s dollars.
The governor is seeking tax cuts, and legislators are asking for increased spending for abused and neglected children, K-12 education and the University of Nebraska, among other items.
State Sen. Brenda Council said that might mean repealing or paring back last year’s Build Nebraska Act, which earmarked additional state funds beginning in 2013 to complete the state’s unfinished four-lane expressway systems, build bypasses around major cities and help cash-strapped cities fix their streets.
Effort to Repeal LB84 Could Arise
There could be an effort to repeal a bill (LB84) passed last session that changed how Nebraska pays for building roads.
LB84 drew deep concerns from a number of senators, including three members of the Appropriations Committee, about what the diversion of sales tax could mean to the state’s other priorities, including education, human services and public safety.
Speaker Mike Flood said he is “absolutely opposed” to repealing the law, emphasizing that good roads are vital to the economic viability of rural Nebraska.
Star Herald Opines on UNL Highway Study
The UNL study found that construction of four-lane freeways had the biggest impact in counties of 20,000 or 25,000 or more in population. Highway Commissioner Doug Leafgreen of Gering was quick to point out that the major counties along the Heartland Expressway route — Scotts Bluff, Box Butte and Dawes — are large enough to benefit from an expressway.
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The Heartland Expressway should be Nebraska’s contribution to the national effort to link markets in the central United States with trading partners in Canada and Mexico. Those nations are prime markets for agricultural goods, and the Heartland would link states that are in the nation’s sweet spot for oil, natural gas, coal, wind and even solar energy resources. States to the north and south of Nebraska have been building the transcontinental trade corridor and seeing a boom in development along the route.
The point of the Heartland Expressway is to attract more truck traffic and more tourism, and to create a faster, more profitable route that will attract business to western Nebraska, not necessarily to boost the economies of Lincoln and Omaha…….
Study Good News for Heartland Expressway
Highway Commissioner Doug Leafgreen of Gering, said he considered the study “good news” for construction of the four-lane Heartland Expressway across the rural Panhandle region of the state.
Leafgreen said all the major counties along the route — Scotts Bluff, Box Butte and Dawes — are large enough to benefit by an expressway.
Heartland Expressway Stretch Tabbed for Crucial Funding
Governor Heineman has earmarked over $30 million of the new highway construction money to complete the widening of a Heartland Expressway segment between Alliance and the L-62A turnoff south of Angora.
Scottsbluff Expecting Growth from Heartland’s Completion
The effect of a completed Heartland Expressway on Scottsbluff could pave the way for hiring a city planner. Scottsbluff City Manager Rick Kuckkahn told the Scottsbluff City Council that a planner could help prepare Scottsbluff for future growth.
“There are a number of things a planner would be well-suited for,” Kuckkahn said. “The completion of the Heartland Expressway would have a profound imprint on Scottsbluff with the energy, tourism, traffic and infrastructure.”
Heartland Expressway In Line to Receive LB84 Funds
Monty Fredrickson presented a plan for using the newly earmarked funds to the Legislature’s Appropriations and Transportation and Telecommunications committees.
He said the state would not be able to undertake any of the projects in the plan without the earmarked funds.
The new law mandates that 25 percent of the funding go for expressways or federally designated highway corridors. The two such corridors in the state are from Norfolk to South Sioux City and the Heartland Expressway across the Panhandle.
Heartland Expressway Video Presentation Available
A video presentation regarding the Heartland Expressway Corridor Management Plan, prepared by the Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR), can be viewed here.
If you would like to comment on the Heartland Expressway Corridor Management Plan, the NDOR is accepting comments until October 28 . Comments can be be emailed to Greg.Weinert@nebraska.gov or mailed to:
Greg Weinert
Public Hearings Officer
Communications Division
Nebraska Department of Roads
P.O. Box 94759
Lincoln, NE 68509-4759
Heartland Open House Handout Available On-Line
A handout developed by the Nebraska Department of Roads for their Public Information Meeting regarding the Heartland Expressway Corridor Management Plan is available on-line by clicking this hyperlink.
Panhandle Area Development District
Ports to Plains
Theodore Roosevelt Expressway
Western Nebraska Tourism Coalition
