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Considered a “Hail Mary,” Lewis County officials believe scheduling $52 million in transportation funding for local projects is on track to be among the biggest successes in the state Legislature.

“This was by far the best news of the legislative session for Lewis County,” Lewis County Commissioner Sean Swope said Thursday. “Because this is going to have a dramatic impact on us. It’s not every day that you get all the different entities to be on the same page, but there is complete buy-in on this.”

When completed, the goal of the projects is to reduce congestion by separating freight and commuter traffic on local roads while also developing alternate routes to many of the critical locations in the county . . .

“The transportation funding, and revised timeline, secured in the state transportation budget is essential for Centralia and Lewis County,” Abbarno said in a statement. “I appreciate the bipartisan support to keep these projects on track and the commitment from our county partners to improve residential and commercial traffic flow in Centralia, as well as throughout north Lewis and south Thurston counties.”

Read more in The Chronicle

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