Home » Senate green lights $2.5 billion road plan

Senate green lights $2.5 billion road plan

Sen. Ernie Harris, R-Prospect, presented the road projects bill in the Senate.
Sen. Ernie Harris, R-Prospect, presented the road projects bill in the Senate.

FRANKFORT (March 22, 2018) – The Senate approved today a $2.5 billion Biennial Highway Construction Plan that would focus on the safety and maintenance of Kentucky’s bridges.

But such important infrastructure projects will be threatened in the future, warned Senate Transportation Committee Chair Ernie Harris, R-Prospect, who presented the highway construction plan, contained in House Bill 202. 

“We have a perfect storm that is going to hit us in two years,” he said, adding that the federal government will reduce the amount it pays for road projects across Kentucky. The feds currently pay 80 percent, with the state picking up the remaining 20 percent, of many projects.

Sen. Christian McDaniel, R-Taylor Mill, praised Harris for presenting a fiscally sound plan while the federal match is still at 80 percent.

“This is a road plan that is balanced,” McDaniel said. “We have seen a lot that are not in the past. It takes an exceptional amount of discipline to put forward a plan like that. And frankly, in many ways, an exceptional amount of courage.”

He said Harris has shown that in his steadfast stewardship of the highway construction plan.

HB 202 passed by a 37-0 vote.

The accompanying six-year road plan, found in House Joint Resolution 74, also passed the Senate today by a 37-0 vote. The resolution includes more than $4 million in projects that are not funded in the two-year plan.

All the measures now go back to the state House for consideration of changes made in the Senate.