Dr. David Burress, University of Kansas Researcher:

"If someone's gonna build a new factory someplace, one of the first question he asks is 'How am I gonna get my goods to market? How good are those highways?' When he's trying to decide where to build, for an awful lot of businesses, he wants to be near a really good road, an interstate road or interstate quality road. And we've gotta build those roads and keep them up if we're going to be competitive in that."

Tom Wright, Golden Grain Enterprises:

"Truck transportation is an economic key to our whole future out here. We're a farm economy and there's agri businesses and agri business is completely dependent on trucking."

Ralph Goodnight, Lakin Mayor:

"We are probably the most direct route from the Wichita/Hutchinson area to Pueblo/Colorado Springs/I-25 corridor and certainly by having a highway that is safer, it has made the way for more folks to travel that road. And anytime that anyone is driving through they tend to stop at our stores and visit our merchants and certainly that's been an economic development help."