FRANKFORT, Ky. (Aug. 24, 2023) – Today, Gov. Andy Beshear announced he has approved $3.4 million in discretionary transportation funding for 24 cities and counties across Kentucky that asked for help in improving local streets and roads.
The discretionary funding is administered through the Department of Rural and Municipal Aid at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC).
“I’m glad we are able to offer this funding, because local roadways help define a community,” Gov. Beshear said. “These are streets and roads that lead to homes and schools, to shops and stores and industrial sites that employ hardworking Kentucky men and women. Keeping them maintained is how we keep a community thriving.”
For example, Elliott County was approved for $400,000 to repair a 1.25-mile stretch of Johnson Creek Road, which is badly breaking and slipping.
“We desperately need steel drilled in the worst areas and bituminous topping replaced,” Judge/Executive Myron Lewis said in his application. “The cost of drilling steel, cribbing and repaving would most certainly be above our county’s road fund capability in one year.”
Fifteen households are located in the project area, the judge said.
“These are hardworking families who rely on the county to keep their road in safe condition,” he said.
Similarly, Caldwell County, which was approved for $374,496, plans to use the funding to resurface three local routes: Scottsburg Road, Sugar Creek Church Road and Friendship Road. In the county’s application, Judge/Executive William Young said the roadways were so riddled with potholes, cracking and base failures that they posed “travel impediments and safety hazards to the constituents who utilize them on a daily basis for residential, commercial, school and general travel purposes.”
Other counties approved for funding were Barren, Bath, Butler, Carlisle, Floyd, Green, Hopkins, Knott, Knox, LaRue, Lawrence, Madison, Menifee, Mercer, Nicholas, and Washington.
Funding also was approved for six cities: Buckhorn, Edmonton, Hazard, Manchester, Monticello and West Point.
During his administration, Gov. Beshear has approved discretionary transportation funding totaling $62,186,796, and awards have been made to all 120 Kentucky counties. Click here for a list of the awards announced today.