Sen. Brown says transportation bill can give economy a kick
Dover New Philadelphia Times Reporter — As an oil and gas boom takes hold in the Tuscarawas Valley, the region and Ohio overall are faced with an aging, crumbling infrastructure that may not be up to handling the heavy traffic volume.
In a conference call with reporters Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon, touted a transportation jobs bill — called Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century — to jump-start critical infrastructure projects and keep Ohioans working.
“We built the best infrastructure in the world, but have watched it crumble for decades,” Brown said. “That’s why the Senate’s bipartisan Surface Transportation Bill Reauthorization is so important — it provides greater flexibility for states to repair aging bridges and roads while putting people to work strengthening our nation’s economic competitiveness.”
The bill would reauthorize programs funded by the federal Highway Trust Fund. Unless that happens, Ohio could lose about $1.4 billion, jeopardizing more than 50,050 Ohio jobs.
