Transportation Officials Lay Out Five Year Plan

State transportation officials have unveiled how they will spend the money they get over the next five years. The Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP, will spend more money this year on maintaining roads. The eventual goal is to basically double the amount of dollars going towards maintenance as opposed to new road construction. Transportation’s chief engineer Kevin Keith says the new STIP reflects the new attitude at the Transportation Department to do a better job of taking care of what it has. Keith admits the new plan will improve the road conditions by only a few percentage points each year. And he knows building fewer new roads will make a certain amount of people unhappy as well. But, Keith says, it’s all Transportation has.