Kentucky's recently passed $8.5 billion 2018 highway plan aims to prioritize spending on 1,400 projects, including work on 1,000 bridges and improvements to 5,000 miles of pavement, plus road widening and the reconstruction of existing roads, along with construction of new routes and interchanges.
The Bluegrass state's six-year plan also includes $4.6 billion for mobility and safety projects, $2.3 billion for bridge and pavement repairs, $1 billion in federally dedicated programs and $600 million for federal GARVEE debt service payments.
Kentucky plans to spend $2.68 billion over the next two years on nearly 400 bridge repairs and replacement and 1,275 lane-miles of pavement improvements, plus 230 mobility and related safety projects. That near-term effort will be enhanced by the recent passage of House Bill 385, which expands the previous design-bid project limit from $30 million to $300 million, along with the use of the Bluegrass state's new Strategic Highway Investment Formula for Tomorrow (SHIFT) process for prioritizing federal and state funding for specific infrastructure projects.
The new SHIFT formula, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, will use quantitative measures such as crash rates, traffic congestion levels, economic growth and cost-benefit ratios—along with input from local transportation leaders—to rank 1,100 highway projects.
---------
Source: AASHTO Journal
