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Petri secures state transport funding

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Also by Teresa Welsh:

Health costs differ throughout state (December 6, 2007)
Great Dane able to expand beer sales (December 4, 2007)
You owe $3,500: Debt continues to rise (November 29, 2007)
Petri secures state transport funding (November 26, 2007)
Professors know what you REALLY did last summer... (November 20, 2007)

by Teresa Welsh

Monday, November 26, 2007

Wisconsin will receive more than $1 million from the federal 2008 transportation spending bill for a number of projects in the Fox Valley, a U.S. representative from Fond du Lac announced last week.

U.S. Rep. Tom Petri, R-Fond du Lac, said the money would be used for three separate projects in Petri’s district. He is the former vice chair of the Transportation Committee and is currently the ranking Republican on the Aviation Subcommittee.

“There were a few things that needed to be done in Wisconsin and [Petri] was able to convince the colleagues that they were a legitimate project,” said Petri's press secretary Niel Wright.

The largest portion of the money, $600,000, will be used to conduct an engineering study for the construction a bridge across the North Fond du Lac rail yard.

“A bridge there is important because when a long train is going into or out of the rail yard, people can be stuck at the rail crossing for quite sometime,” Wright said. “That’s both inconvenient for regular citizens and it can be a tragedy for ambulances and police cars.”

Money will also be used to repair part of State Highway 44 that runs through Oshkosh. Petri secured $400,000 for this project.

The remaining $100,000 will be used for the Sheboygan Development Corporation’s Great Lakes Aerospace Science and Education Center.

“[The Center] has a lot of local support and we see it as an opportunity to keep Wisconsin in the high-tech game,” Wright said.

The Transportation Bill was passed by the House but has not yet been passed by the Senate. According to Wright, President Bush is expected to veto the bill because of the high number of projects it funds.

Also included in the bill is $3.35 million for buses and bus stations statewide.

Mike Goetzman of the Office of Public Affairs at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, is very pleased Petri was able to secure funding in his district and for the entire state of Wisconsin.

“We appreciate anything that the senators can do to help get transportation funding to help support the projects we have here in the state,” Goetzman said.

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