11/10/05-The Joint Interim Revenue Committee is scheduled to take up three proposed measures Thursday, Nov. 10, that combined would earmark roughly $125 million annually for highway work.
Funding would come via the state’s budget reserves as well as taxes from energy and mineral production.
In anticipation of additional dollars, the Wyoming Department of Transportation has identified 10 highway corridors around the state that need widening and other upgrades.
The projects cover nearly 500 miles of road with a price tag of $3 million a mile, The AP reported.
Highest on the priority list of highway projects are a stretch of state Highway 220 from Casper southwest to Muddy Gap, U.S. 287 from Laramie south to the Colorado line and state Highway 59 from Gillette south to Wright.
Del McOmie, WYDOT’s chief engineer, said other states have found that where two-lane highways were widened to four lanes, a 40 percent reduction in fatalities resulted. He told the news agency Wyoming could expect a similar reduction in fatalities on its highways when improvements are finished.
One of the proposed bills would allocate $75 million from the state’s budget reserve for highway work. The two other measures would use roughly $50 million a year from the state’s severance tax revenues and from federal mineral royalties.