Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

Office of Public Affairs

For Immediate Release
June 16, 2008

Media contact: Chuck Wolfe
Chuck.Wolfe@ky.gov
502-564-3419

Secretary Prather issues 2008 Kentucky Highway Plan
Requested by Governor as substitute for vetoed highway legislation

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Kentucky Transportation Secretary Joe Prather today issued a substitute Kentucky Highway Plan containing all proposed transportation projects for the commonwealth through 2014.

The plan replaces a version enacted by the 2008 General Assembly but vetoed by Gov. Steve Beshear because of the unprecedented limitations it would have placed on the Governor’s ability to administer transportation funds.

The substitute plan contains the same projects the administration presented to legislators in February. It also contains $317 million of additional projects proposed by the House and Senate. The Governor directed the inclusion of those projects so that all could be considered for state funding.

“The plan designed by Secretary Prather and the Transportation Cabinet gives us the flexibility we need for making the countless decisions and meeting the many challenges that are inevitable in managing a statewide transportation system,” the Governor said.

The vetoed plan – House Bill 79 – was a marked departure from past practice. Since the inception of a comprehensive highway plan in 1982, the plan had been spelled out in a memorandum that accompanied the Legislature’s enacted budget.

But the 2008 General Assembly chose to cement a highway plan in a separate statute, which would have rendered the administration unable to make the adjustments that are always needed when implementing hundreds of road and bridge projects.

In addition, the Legislature’s plan inexplicably omitted a number of projects, two of which are considered crucial to the expansion of Fort Knox – completion of the extension of Ring Road to the Western Kentucky Parkway in Hardin County and preconstruction work for roadway connections to US 60 in Meade County.

The Legislature also omitted funding for completion of the Cole Road widening project at Fort Campbell in Christian County, reconstruction of the heavily traveled Mall Road in Boone County, an access road to St. Claire Medical Center in Morehead, pavement repairs to US 23 in Lawrence County, and environmental funding set aside for wetland banking to satisfy highway-related federal stream management requirements statewide.

The substitute Highway Plan can be viewed online: http://transportation.ky.gov/progmgmt/08highwayplan.html

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