Rep. Kelly Announces $20 Million Grant for Route 228 in Butler County
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) hosted a joint press conference yesterday afternoon at the Butler County Government Center to formally announce the awarding of $20,000,000 to Butler County from the BUILD (Better Utilization Investments to Leverage Development) Transportation Discretionary Grant Program for Gateway 228 capacity and safety improvements—Butler’s County’s most critical transportation initiative—as confirmed yesterday by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Officials are celebrating a huge federal grant that will benefit Butler County’s “most critical transportation initiative” – the Route 228 corridor.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded a $20 million grant to make capacity and safety improvements on the "Gateway 228"project focused on upgrading the state road that runs from Ambridge in Beaver County to Buffalo Township in southwestern Butler County.
It was a triumphant gathering of partners Thursday afternoon, as the county commissioners announced that they received the large federal transportation infrastructure grant they applied for in July.
The commissioners, who produced the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant application in collaboration with a number of other entities, requested $24.3 million to realign and expand Route 228 in Middlesex Township between Route 8 and Quality Gardens.
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The mood at the county government center was jubilant Thursday as U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-3rd, joined the three commissioners; Mark Gordon, county director of economic development; Dick Hadley, Cranberry Township supervisor; and representatives from the SPC, PennDOT, and state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe's office, and others clapped one another on the back in light of their achievement.
A beaming Kelly extolled the collaboration of the entities involved in the grant application and the dogged determination of the commissioners in seeing the project through.
“This is an example of the way we are supposed to function,” Kelly said. “Local, state and federal people coming together for something that just makes sense.”
Kelly said Route 228 has a crash rate three times the state average, at 232 crashes and one fatality between 2013 and 2017.
He said 6,000 students from eight schools are transported on the highway each school day.
“We put our most precious commodity on a road that will be safer now,” Kelly said.
After working for nearly 30 years, Butler County officials celebrated Thursday when they received news that the county has been approved for a $20 million federal grant for the last pieces of the Gateway 228 road improvement project.
The federal Department of Transportation announced the first round of grants under the Trump administration’s Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development program. The program is designed to help fund transportation projects that have an economic importance in rural areas.
“This is the way we are supposed to function– local, state and federal people coming together for something that just makes sense,” U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly said during a news conference Thursday.
According to Kelly, Route 228 has a crash rate three times the state average, and 6,000 students from eight schools are transported on the highway each school day.
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