HARRISBURG — Highway officials are preparing to spend up to six months reviewing Pennsylvania's interstate system as they decide which areas are suitable for higher speeds.

Part of the major transportation funding measure that Gov. Tom Corbett planned to sign today allows the state's transportation secretary to increase speed limits from 65 mph to 70 mph on certain highways.

PennDOT spokesman Richard Kirkpatrick said that Pennsylvania has 700 signs posting the 65-mph limit. It costs $245 to replace each one.

The Pennsylvania AAA Federation doesn't oppose the move to 70 mph, as long as PennDOT adequately studies the safety impact. The Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania also doesn't oppose it.

Most states already have a top speed limit of 70 mph or higher.

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's leading farm advocacy group is applauding the passage of a $2.3 billion transportation funding plan by the state Legislature.Pennsylvania Farm Bureau president Carl Shaffer said the transportation department's added weight restrictions to bridges in August forced some farmers to drive longer routes to deliver corn and soybeans during the fall harvest.Gov. Tom Corbett planned to sign the measure today at a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall along Route 322 in Centre County.Shaffer said the longer routes increased farmers' fuel costs and cut into their profit margins on the crops. He also says dairy farmers footed the bill when some milk haulers had to find alternative routes to processing facilities.The highway and bridge work will be paid for by higher fuel taxes and motorist fees.

SPRING MILLS — Gov. Tom Corbett is traveling across Pennsylvania to sign a bill that will provide $2.3 billion a year for improvements to the state's highways, bridges and mass-transit systems.Corbett planned to sign the legislation today at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Spring Mills, near State College. Similar events are planned later in the day in the Philadelphia suburbs and Pittsburgh.The bill will increase gas taxes and motorist fees to generate the additional revenue.Most of the new money is earmarked for highways and bridges, and the administration said the first projects to be financed with it likely will be scattered across the state.The Republican governor is running for re-election in 2014. The bill's passage is the biggest triumph in his first three years as governor.