Longtime Congressman Hal Rogers and Gov. Andy Beshear said separately this week their offices worked to get an $85 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant for the Somerset Northern Bypass.
Neither Rogers’ nor Beshear’s announcements credited the other. Beshear said the money was made possible through a 2021 infrastructure bill Rogers voted against.
But the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet applied for the grant with support from both politicians.
Steven Voss, a political science professor at the University of Kentucky, says Rogers can claim credit for doing his part.
“There's nothing logically inconsistent about opposing a spending program, but once it goes through, trying to get money for your state or your district,” Voss said.
The Somerset Northern Bypass will be designated as Interstate 365 and connect Somerset with Bowling Green. Construction could begin next summer, Rogers said.
Rogers, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the longest-serving members of Congress, has supported hundreds of millions of dollars in federal spending for road projects in his Eastern Kentucky district.
“Both Hal Rogers and the Republican voters in his district tend to be more comfortable with government spending and government programs than what we see from most of the Republican Party today,” Voss said.
The Somerset Northern Bypass is part of the Southern Kentucky Corridor, one of the biggest highway projects supported by Rogers.
In a statement Tuesday, Rogers said a total of $167 million has been committed to build an 8-mile portion of the highway between U.S. 27 and the intersection of KY 80 and KY 461 in Pulaski County.
The existing 3.67 miles of the Somerset Northern Bypass connects with the Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway, which reaches Interstate 65 about 90 miles west of Somerset.
In past decades, the highway was envisioned as part of an eventual Interstate 66 from Virginia to California. However, other states have decided against building their portions of I-66.
In Tuesday’s release, and his June letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Rogers referred to the highway as I-365.
Danielle Smoot, a Rogers spokeswoman, said the latest round of funding came from offshore wind projects Duffy canceled last year. The 12 wind projects, totaling $679 million, were supported partly by the U.S. Maritime Administration, an agency within the transportation department.
In June, Duffy made a nearly identical sum available to infrastructure projects through the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight and Highway Projects program, or INFRA.
INFRA was authorized by the 2021 infrastructure bill Rogers and most Republicans opposed.
