Transportation Budget Signed By Gov.

Governor Inslee signed the new transportation budget Tuesday for the biennium of 2017-19.  The new budget sets aside $4.3 billion for capital projects around the state, makes permanent the raises for Washington State Patrol, and improves transportation and insurance for employees responding to a railroad accident among many other things.

The budget includes funding for a handful of projects in North Central Washington; improvements to the Goodwin Bridge in Cashmere and Woodin Ave. Bridge in Chelan,  freight rail and track improvements near Coulee City plus projects to improve intersections at the foot of 9th Street in East Wenatchee and Highway 150 near Manson.

Senate Transportation Committee Chair Sen. Curtis King called it a "promises made, promises kept" budget that allows funding to be transferred from projects that aren't ready to ones that can completed in the biennium, which hasn't been the case before now.