A key meeting is set for the regional effort to get U.S. Route 30 finished as a four-lane highway all the way across northeast Ohio.
No available money
For decades the Ohio Department of Transportation said “no” to making a superhighway out two-lane U.S. 30 between Canton and Lisbon; citing a lack of funding.
HB 494
But, the state legislature passed a law to allow counties to band together with special taxing authority to raise money for “RTIP”s: Regional Transportation Infrastructure Projects.
Counties take action
Stark County Commissioner Richard Regula says the pieces are in place to pursue the next steps.
“Carroll County has passed theirs, Columbiana County has passed theirs, Stark County has passed theirs. And now we have a meeting set up with Jerry Ray, who is the director of the Ohio Department of Transportation, to get his blessing on the RTIP."
Regula added, "And then the hard work begins. But we’re continuing to move forward on it.”
Going forward
The meeting is August 9th. Regula says the RTIP could take two years to set up; and the U.S. 30 remake could take ten years, and a billion dollars to complete.
