California lawmakers have revived legislation to deliver more federal funding to repair and maintain rural roads and bridges in agricultural counties with heavy truck traffic.
The Farm to Market Road Improvement Act would establish a grant program for counties with an annual gross production value of $1 billion or more and with $500,000 of production value per square mile, making Kings and Tulare counties eligible. The act would set aside 10% of the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program for the funding.
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The authors are Reps. Jim Costa, D-Fresno; David Valadao, R-Hanford; and Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, along with Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-FL. They argue local governments need help to maintain the roads due to the constant wear and tear of trucks hauling 80,000 pounds in goods. Valadao said many of the roads in his district are in desperate need of repair.
California Farm Bureau President Shannon Douglass applauded their attention to the issue, “particularly at a time when investments in our nation’s rural infrastructure continues to lag behind our more urban areas,” she said in a statement.
The lawmakers attempted the same legislation last fall without success.
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