What’s in the state road plan for Fayette County? An I-75 underpass and more
The final version of the two-year state road plan, which provides funding for more than $5.2 billion in road projects across Kentucky, was unveiled Wednesday morning.
Fayette County got a $155 million slice of that pie in House Bill 502. Notable projects in Lexington include some that have already been announced, and others that are completely new, like a proposed underpass underneath Interstate 75 to connect Sir Barton Way with Polo Club Boulevard in the Hamburg area.
The state will provide $2,515,000 in the new road plan for design of the I-75 project, which is billed in the plan as a way to “address congestion and improve safety on US 60 (Winchester Rd) and Man O’ War Blvd.”
Senate Transportation Committee Chair Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, said the tunnel has been proposed as a way to ease traffic around new hospital projects like Baptist Health’s Hamburg campus and the planned University of Kentucky HealthCare outpatient treatment center.
“We’re going under I-75. You can go under it or over it, and it was cheaper to go under, and the feds have okayed that,” Higdon told the Herald-Leader.
While Higdon referred to the project as a “tunnel” on Wednesday, City of Lexington spokesperson Susan Straub said it is instead an “underpass.”
Straub said “this project has been referred to as a tunnel, it is not a tunnel. Instead, the roadway is proposed to go underneath Interstate 75, and thus it will be a more traditional highway underpass. There will be no on-ramps or off-ramps to and from I-75 to the new roadway.”
Straub said the new underpass “was a high priority for us because it gives us an opportunity to proactively address future congestion as that expansion area continues to develop.”
The project is estimated to cost between $40 and $50 million but that cost estimate could change as design work gets underway, she said. Money for construction has not been allocated. A timeline for construction has also not been determined.
For the first time in years, the plan in is not “over-programmed,” which happens when more projects are earmarked than there’s funding for, according to Higdon.
Other high-dollar projects in the road plan include:
- $41.2 million for U.S. 25 (Georgetown Road) reconstruction and widening from Spurr Road to Ironworks Road.
- $13.5 million from a $230 million General Fund pool to “improve the Red Mile Corridor between South Broadway and Versailles Road.”
- $4 million for construction on Citation Boulevard, connecting Newtown Pike to Russell Cave Road.
- $4.7 million in state funds for safety improvements on New Circle Road between Boardwalk and Bryan Station Road.
Overall, Fayette’s total allotment from the state continues to lag behind other populous counties when tallied per person.
In 2024, Fayette ranked the tenth-lowest in terms of road plan funding person among Kentucky’s 120 counties. Jefferson County nearly doubled Fayette’s figure.
This year, Jefferson County, whose roads have a larger physical footprint due to Fayette County’s growth boundary, continued to get significantly more funding. Jefferson County received $708 million compared to Fayette County’s $155 million mark; that’s 4.5 times as much, compared to the population figures, where Jefferson County has about 2.4 times as many residents.
When asked about the funding mismatch, Higdon said that Fayette County’s haul was “fairly handsome.” However, when he looked back through the road plan and compared Jefferson County to Fayette County, he said “it’s not as much as I thought it was.”
In terms of total funding, Fayette got the fifth-most, behind Jefferson, Henderson, Pulaski and Kenton counties. Massive interstate crossing projects on the Ohio River raised Henderson and Kenton’s total funding this year.
Still, Fayette’s funding mark is higher than what was in the House’s version of the road plan, which penciled in just $122 million for the county.
Many Fayette County projects are also slated for design and construction in the six-year road plan, which is passed every budget session as a nonbinding “wish list” for future projects. Some of those big projects address two important traffic veins in Lexington: New Circle Road and Nicholasville Road.
“The big project is trying to get New Circle Road improved all the way around. The last one’s going to be over on Nicholasville road. That’s going to be the bear. They’ll have flying cars by that time, just avoid that intersection,” Higdon said.
Also of note from Higdon: There are no expected changes in the state’s gas tax rate. Some legislators like Rep. Tom Smith, R-Corbin, proposed reconfiguring the gas tax to allow for more revenue into the state’s Road Fund, which is largely funded by the gas tax.
Higdon added Wednesday morning that this version of the road plan is final, and will not be altered before final passage later Wednesday.
This story was originally published April 1, 2026 at 1:20 PM.
