BY PAUL BARTON
Enquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The Interstate 71 corridor project has received $3.6 million from House and Senate appropriators for 1999 to continue preliminary engineering and environmental impact assessments, officials announced Friday.
The money is expected to be included in the 1999 transportation appropriations bill.
Rep. Rob Portman said Friday he is supporting the request only because local officials have told him they understand that it has to be matched with an equal amount of local money.
The project is designed to provide transportation linkage between the Cincinnati - Northern Kentucky International Airport and the fast-growing suburbs northeast of Cincinnati.
The Cincinnati project is cited in the new six-year federal transportation bill so that future construction money can be assigned to it as Congress deems it appropriate.
That bill contains $65 million through 2003 to finish engineering work for the project.
