COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the last few months, Ohio lawmakers have been working hard on the state’s fiscal budget.
The transportation portion of the budget is typically finalized by the end of March, but we could see it pass as early as this week.
On Tuesday, March 21, the transportation committee heard testimony from people asking lawmakers to amend the budget before signing off on the final version. People testifying asked the committee to consider inflation costs.
The Ohio Senate Transportation Committee amended the state’s two-year transportation budget with language to increase the speed limit from 55 to 60 miles per hour on two-lane state routes outside of city limits.
Lawmakers have also worked to add railways safety improvements to the transportation budget.
For example, a wayside detector rule has been added to the language of the transportation budget. Wayside detectors use cameras and sensors to help catch malfunctions on train tracks. Another improvement added was a requirement of two crew members per train in Ohio.
Tom Rozsits, the President and Executive Director of Ohio Concrete, told the transportation committee his organization took a financial hit because of COVID, worker shortages, and more demand than supply.
Rozsits said much of the concrete used in Ohio is shipped from overseas, which has affected the amount that could potentially be spent on concrete in Ohio.
He asked the committee to amend language in the transportation budget to include a plan for a road pavement selection process.
This amendment would provide the approval of an advisory council headed by ODOT.
That council would review the current procedure and implement improvements to the state’s pavement selection process. Rozsitz argued the amendment is exactly what the 125th general assembly did in the transportation budget back in 2003.
He told committee members that, as a result, a healthy plan existed in the next decade with competing bids and pavement selections.
“The language would simply require ODOT to contract with a neutral third party to analyze the pavement, the agencies pavement selection process including but not limited to life cycle cost analysis, user delay, constructability, and environmental factors,” said Rozsits.
According to the legislative calendar, this was the eighth committee meeting. The group will meet again on Wednesday, March 22, to discuss the transportation budget once again. Besides the transportation portion of the budget, lawmakers held several sub-finance committee meetings on Tuesday, March 21, to discuss how funds should be allocated to sectors like education and health care over the next two years.
