LB454 LB454
2023 2023
LEGISLATURE OF NEBRASKA
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH LEGISLATURE
FIRST SESSION
LEGISLATIVE BILL 454
Introduced by DeKay, 40; Brandt, 32; Dover, 19; Geist, 25; Hughes, 24;
Moser, 22.
Read first time January 13, 2023
Committee: Transportation and Telecommunications
1 A BILL FOR AN ACT relating to roads; to require the Department of
2 Transportation to plan, design, and purchase rights-of-way for U.S.
3 Highway 81; and to declare legislative intent to appropriate funds.
4 Be it enacted by the people of the State of Nebraska,
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1 Section 1. (1) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that:
2 (a) The Department of Roads first identified the need for an
3 expressway system for northeast Nebraska. The planned system included the
4 U.S. Highway 81 expansion which amounts to forty-three miles of U.S.
5 Highway 81 from York to seven miles south of Columbus;
6 (b) The purpose of the expressway system is to:
7 (i) Connect urban centers with a population of fifteen thousand
8 inhabitants or more to the National System of Interstate and Defense
9 Highways;
10 (ii) Add those routes which have an average daily traffic of five
11 hundred or more heavy commercial vehicles; and
12 (iii) Add additional segments to provide four-lane continuity;
13 (c) The planning, design, and purchase of rights-of-way for the
14 north-south meridian superhighway system located along U.S. Highway 81 is
15 critically necessary to link northeast Nebraska to other parts of the
16 state and other regions in the United States; and
17 (d) The planning, design, and purchase of rights-of-way described in
18 this subsection will address the growth of global transportation,
19 agribusiness, tourism industries, and significant safety concerns for a
20 growing commuter population in northeast Nebraska.
21 (2) The Department of Transportation shall plan, design, and
22 purchase rights-of-way for the north-south meridian four-lane divided
23 highway system located along U.S. Highway 81.
24 (3)(a) It is the intent of the Legislature to appropriate funds for
25 the planning, design, and purchase of rights-of-way for the following:
26 (i) U.S. Highway 81 between Norfolk and the South Dakota border into
27 a four-lane divided highway; and
28 (ii) U.S. Highway 81 between Columbus and York into a four-lane
29 divided highway.
30 (b) It is the intent of the Legislature to appropriate funds for
31 signage and the development of a gateway entrance at U.S. Highway 81 and
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1 Nebraska Highway 12 to alert travelers to the locations of Niobrara State
2 Park and Lewis and Clark Lake.
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