Now in Week 3 of the Kentucky General Assembly’s 60-day session, Governor Andy Beshear has unveiled his 2024 Recommended Highway Plan — one that features more than 1,300 projects to build a better Kentucky.
The six-year plan takes into account the next biennium budget, and has three focus areas:
— Taking care of existing roads and bridges;
— Executing construction projects to upgrade our transportation system: including three priority projects in the Northern Kentucky Brent Spence companion bridge, the I-69 Ohio River Crossing in western Kentucky, and the Mountain Parkway Expansion Project in eastern Kentucky;
— And the honoring of past bridge and road commitments, while advancing ongoing projects.
This recommended highway plan is based on anticipated revenues of $8.65 billion through 2030, to include $7.7 billion in federal-aid highway program funding and the required state match — plus $950 million in anticipated state road fund revenues.
During this General Assembly, Beshear said funding for the first two years of the highway plan will be authorized, and involves almost $600 million yearly in state and federal funding to address pavement and bridge repairs.
To date, Kentucky owns and maintains more than 9,000 bridges and 63,000 lane-miles of pavement. It’s the seventh-largest bridge system and eighth-largest pavement system in the country.
Some featured projects include two major investments to western Kentucky, and involve:
— The reconstruction of Kentucky Highway 115 from the Industrial Park near Pembroke to I-24 in Christian County;
— And the construction of a new access road in McCracken County to the Ohio River Megapark.
This plan also proposes $5 million per year to repair rest areas, as well as $10 million per year to expand truck parking at interstate rest areas.
Beshear said inflationary pressures across the construction industry have increased costs, but nearly 40% of highway plan funds are directed to investments in existing highway pavements, guardrails and bridges.
The General Assembly will enact the final highway plan on or before April 15.