Kentucky Senate President David Williams last week expressed concern over the divided work and funding plans that were recently proposed for the $2.6 billion Ohio River Bridges Project.
The governors of Kentucky and Indiana announced during the last week of 2011 that they reached consensus on a basic plan in which each state would finance $1.3 billion of the cost and be separately responsible for building certain projects.
The plan includes new bridges and improvements to the Louisville, Ky., interchange where interstates 64, 65, and 71 converge.
The divided approach came about because the states differed on how to procure their projects. Indiana opted for a public-private partnership while Kentucky expected to use a traditional design-build approach, though the governors said the improvements are still being done as one project.
Williams, a Republican, told reporters that he disagreed with the split procurement, according to the Courier-Journal.
“How can you allege that this is one project?” Williams said. “What they’ve done is they’ve created two projects out of it. And I think that they quite possibly opened themselves up to litigation concerning whether this is one project or two projects now.”
Kentucky lawmakers were expected to see the proposed financing plan this week. They are in session through April 10.
The Indiana Finance Authority on Jan. 6 issued a request for qualifications from legal firms interested in serving as transaction counsel on the state’s portion of the procurement.
