MAHONING VALLEY State panel approves funding for 2 local highway projects

COLUMBUS -- Two Mahoning Valley highway projects will get state money under Gov. Bob Taft's "Jobs and Progress" plan.
The Transportation Review Advisory Council, which oversees funding of major new transportation projects, approved more than $3.6 billion Friday for further development and construction of projects around the state.
Among the large projects in nearly every region of the state to be constructed over the next 10 years:
UA funding commitment of $3.6 million for further development, to reconstruct the Interstate 80 corridor in Mahoning County starting in 2008. The total project cost is $264 million.
UA funding commitment of $4.4 million for preliminary engineering for U.S. Route 30 in Carroll and Columbiana counties. Route 30 would be relocated from state Route 44 to state Route 9 beginning this year. The total project cost is $100 million.
Taft's Jobs and Progress plan was unveiled last summer and, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation, is the largest and most comprehensive construction program to improve the state's highway system since the original creation of the interstate highway program in 1956.