{"id":33606,"date":"2023-03-01T09:27:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T15:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=33606"},"modified":"2023-03-01T10:46:02","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T16:46:02","slug":"east-beltway-project-proposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=33606","title":{"rendered":"East beltway project proposed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Transportation and Telecommunications Committee heard testimony Feb. 28 on a bill that would fund planning of a new beltway project in Lancaster County.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Beau Ballard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB721, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Beau Ballard, would appropriate $25 million in general funds in fiscal year 2023-24 to the state Department of Transportation to begin planning for the Lincoln East Beltway project. Planning would include designing the roadway and structures for the beltway, cost estimations, environmental studies and evaluation documents and a projected schedule for the project\u2019s completion.<\/p>\n

Ballard said the plan to develop the beltway already has been approved according to federal and state regulations, but requires funding to carry out the construction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe East Beltway is an important part of Lincoln\u2019s future transportation network,\u201d Ballard said. \u201cIt provides benefits to the environment, property, business owners and the traveling public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lancaster County Commissioner Christa Yoakum testified in support of the bill. The East Beltway is the final portion of the expressway system around the city of Lincoln, she said, and is the last \u201cpiece of the puzzle\u201d to fully realizing the benefits of easy regional interconnectivity.<\/p>\n

\u201cEffective transportation infrastructure is vital to keeping Nebraska economically competitive and physical transportation infrastructure is an integral part of the supply chain that supports our continued local, regional and statewide growth within the wider global economy,\u201d Yoakum said.<\/p>\n

Abbey Pascoe, president of the Waverly City Council, also spoke in favor. The beltway project is important for several reasons, Pascoe said, and safety is one of the top priorities. Traffic on 148th St. in Waverly continues to grow as new drivers, school buses and parents use it for traveling to school and activities, she said, and the beltway could help.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the increasing amount of traffic on [that] stretch of shoulderless county roads, it is an important safety issue for people in and around our community,\u201d Pascoe said. \u201cThis issue will only continue to get more significant as the traffic counts climb on 148th St.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one testified in opposition to LB721 and the committee took no immediate action on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Transportation and Telecommunications Committee heard testimony Feb. 28 on a bill that would fund planning of a new beltway project in Lancaster County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22],"tags":[274],"class_list":["post-33606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transportation-and-telecommunications","tag-sen-beau-ballard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33606"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33609,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33606\/revisions\/33609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}