Iowa Senate Transportation Committee Sends CIN Bill To Senate Floor
Sen. Tom Rielly (D-Oskaloosa) is chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee (photo Don Hubbard)
Des Moines, Iowa – Committees are not always known by the average political watcher, but in order for a bill to make it to the floor of either the house or the senate, it must first make it out of committee.
The transportation committee passed SSB#3115, which pushed the bill to the floor of the senate for a vote, that was put together by Sen. Tom Rielly (D-Oskaloosa).
With an extra 100 miles added to the CIN, the highway 63 Coalition would have an opportunity to reach their goal, if approved, of connecting Ottumwa to the northern most point of the project. “This is the start of putting Highway 63 on the commercial-industrial network so that economic development professionals, whether it’s in Pella or Oskaloosa, Montezuma or wherever, they can now say, look, we now have access.”
The passing of this does not mean that Highway 63 will automatically be put on the network; it means that it can be applied for. “There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that they would qualify for it”, Rielly stated.
The inclusion would help smooth the process of getting state and federal highway dollars for possible upgrades and repairs to the highway, and would be a key factor in the intermodel plan for the area being developed by communities stretching from Ottumwa to Malcom. This would help to utilize rail, roads, and regional airports to spur growth in the area.
“The thing I like about it is we’re doing it on a regionalized basis. We’re all working together as communities. This could be a model for the entire state”, was Rielly’s thoughts about the possible project and the cooperation so far.
The bill reads as follows:
The network of commercial and industrial highways shall not exceed two thousand six hundred miles including municipal extensions of these highways.
Explanation:
Pursuant to current law, the transportation commission has identified a network of commercial and industrial highways within the primary road system, consisting of interconnected routes which provide long distance route continuity. This bill raises the limit for the commercial and industrial highway network to 2,600 miles including municipal extensions.
