Rowan County officials said a planned piece of road construction will not be happening. For years, people who travel Kentucky 377, or Cranston, have been looking forward to improvements to the roadway. However, a big piece of funding for the work was pulled out of the two-year state budget.
Rowan County Judge Executive Harry Clark said money for utility, right of way, and construction was initially included in the budget but was lost somewhere during the process.
“In this legislative session, it was always scheduled for $40 million to begin construction in the year 2025, but somewhere along the line it fell out of the budget. So, there is no construction money in the budget for 377 widening. The only thing that is remaining in the budget is money for utilities and right of way,” said Clark.
Clark said he does not think the money was pulled from the budget intentionally but was instead an oversight in Frankfort.
“It was an oversight, but it was a $40 million oversight, and it really hurts Rowan County, for sure. I made a trip to Frankfort last week, and we had a real long conversation around a table, and we were looking for a way to figure out, “Is there any way possible that we could fund this project?” And the answer was no. Once it’s in the highway plan, once it’s in the budget, there’s nothing legally we can do, you can’t move money around in the system,” said Clark.
He said it will likely be at least two and a half years before the issue can be readdressed, as the next budget session isn’t until 2026. Funding for other road work Rowan County officials were looking forward to did make it through to the final budget. That includes work to the Morehead bypass to improve traffic flow.