News
Farmer hopeful infrastructure money will improve rural roads and bridges
A farmer who hauls grain across state lines is pleased with funding in the federal infrastructure bill earmarked for rural roads and bridges.
Tim Scates farms corn and soybeans in Carmi, Illinois near the Indiana state line. He tells Brownfield they sell their grain to CGB and Cargill in Mt. Vernon, Indiana and the route to get there could use some work.
“We have to go across quite a few bridges to get there. We also have a bridge about 15 miles to the north that goes from White County into New Harmony, Indiana and that bridge over the Wabash River has been closed for about 6 or 7 years now. So, they are trying to get some funding to either redo the bridge or maybe put a new one in to get from Illinois to Indiana.”
He would like to see infrastructure money fund local bridge improvements to make transporting grain more efficient.
“I think it will help a lot to repair some of the bridges that have been closed. Not only from state to state, but even some of the county bridges that have had to lower weight limits so we can’t cross them with loaded trucks which makes for more trips across the roads.”
Brownfield interviewed Scates during the Illinois Soybean Association’s #SoyFromIllinois Roadshow this week. Scates serves as an At-Large Director for ISA and his farm was the first stop for the event.
