{"id":33623,"date":"2023-03-02T09:06:38","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T15:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=33623"},"modified":"2023-03-02T14:03:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T20:03:15","slug":"northeast-highway-expansion-proposed-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=33623","title":{"rendered":"Northeast highway expansion proposed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The state would fund expansion of U.S. Highway 81 in Nebraska under a bill considered Feb. 28 by the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Barry DeKay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB454, introduced by Niobrara Sen. Barry DeKay, states legislative intent to appropriate funds to the state Department of Transportation to plan, design, and purchase rights-of-way along Highway 81 between Norfolk and the South Dakota border and between Columbus and York for conversion to a four-lane divided highway.<\/p>\n

The bill also would appropriate funds for signage and development of a gateway entrance at Highway 81 and Neb. Highway 12 to alert travelers to the locations of Niobrara State Park and Lewis and Clark Lake.<\/p>\n

DeKay said Highway 81 is a major thoroughfare, particularly for truck traffic, and is a critical corridor that needs to be completed. The state\u2019s agricultural industry would benefit from the expansion, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgriculture is the state\u2019s number one industry,\u201d DeKay said. \u201cI feel that [LB454] would enhance the growth of agriculture from the grain trade to the cow-calf operation to the feedlots of northeast Nebraska by allowing them to have better access to markets up north in South Dakota or I-80 to the south to states like Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The highway also would enhance safety, he said, and increase economic development through tourism along the corridor.<\/p>\n

Lisa Hurley, executive director of the York County Development Corporation, testified in support of the bill. Nebraska is the only state that has not completed its portion of the federally designated four-lane highway system, Hurley said, and doing so would advance economic development in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in 2016, impacts show that completion [of Highway 81] would add $3.4 billion to Nebraska\u2019s GDP,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cIt would annually support an additional 1,858 new jobs and would add 4,221 [people] to the state population.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dawson Brunswick, president of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, also testified in support.
\nAs the state\u2019s rural population grows in certain areas, he said, it\u2019s imperative that Highway 81 be completed to assist with workforce recruitment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last census, Columbus grew 8.7 percent and Norfolk grew 3.1 percent \u2026 and that\u2019s without a complete Highway 81,\u201d he said. \u201cAll along this corridor, we\u2019re seeing major growth for Nebraska.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one testified in opposition to LB454 and the committee took no immediate action on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state would fund expansion of U.S. Highway 81 in Nebraska under a bill considered Feb. 28 by the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee.<\/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":[276],"class_list":["post-33623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transportation-and-telecommunications","tag-sen-barry-dekay"],"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\/33623","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=33623"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33625,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33623\/revisions\/33625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}