U-S Transportation Secretary and Peoria native Ray LaHood opened the second day of the ICAT-Transportation Conference in East Peoria.
LaHood had a direct message for the more than 500 engineers and other transportation leaders. He strongly encouraged those in attendance to go forward creating their legacy in transportation. “Now I want each of you to leave here and figure out what you’re going to do to contribute to big and bold, how do we pay for it and influencing the people who are going to make it happen. No more chintzy bills! Big and bold! How do we pay for it? And what are we going to do for the next generation of transportation,”
LaHood says the next transportation bill needs to have a five year life span. But he says today’s cars have better gas mileage and more people are using alternative forms of transit contributing to a major reduction is motor fuel tax revenue used to pay for road projects.