Beshear unveils six-year Kentucky highway plan

During his weekly Team Kentucky news conference on Thursday, Governor Beshear unveiled his 2024 Recommended Highway Plan, which features more than 1,300 projects.

The six-year plan includes taking care of existing roads and bridges and executing construction projects to upgrade the transportation system including the I-69 Ohio River crossing in western Kentucky.

Another feature project in western Kentucky is construction of a new access road in McCracken County to the Ohio River Megapark.

The 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.

The plan includes almost $600 million yearly in state and federal funding to address pavement and bridge repairs. Kentucky owns and maintains over 9,000 bridges and over 63,000 lane-miles of pavement. That’s the seventh-largest bridge system and eighth-largest pavement system in the nation.

The recommended highway plan is based on anticipated revenues of $8.65 billion through 2030 – $7.7 billion in federal-aid highway program funding and the required state match plus $950 million in anticipated state road fund revenues. 

The General Assembly will enact the final highway plan around April 15.