Columbia Mayor Brian Treece says how infrastructure funding will be used in Columbia

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

On Friday, the House passed a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Columbia Mayor, Brian Treece, spoke to ABC 17 News about how these funds will be utilized in the area.

Treece says Missouri is going to receive up to $8 billion, and about 6.5 million of this is reserved for roads and bridges.

"I've already talked to MoDOT about accelerating the Highway 63/I-70 interchange project," said Treece.

Treece said people will start to see immediate impacts on the interchange project. He also mentioned improvements to Route B, Paris Road, and Gans Road.

Roads and bridges aren't the only thing that Columbia will be using these funds for.

"We have a lot of other water treatment plan, stormwater, sewer infrastructure projects that Columbia would be in line for," Treece said. "The bill also promises that every American will have access to broadband and that's great news, especially as we come out of this pandemic, when people realize the value of working from home or their kids learning from home or having access to to that affordable high speed internet service."

As one of the fastest growing cities in the Midwest, Treece says it's important that Columbia continues to get these investments.

The bill is also expected to create 2 million new jobs across the U.S. "These are high paying, blue collar, middle waged jobs that are going to put people to work. As we continue to pull out the pandemic, I think we're all going to be grateful for those jobs," Treece said.

Watch ABC 17 News at 10 p.m.