Trigg County Judge-Executive Stan Humphries was part of a 15-person delegation in Washington, D.C., through the Pennyrile Area Development District, seeking to secure funding for the region’s future.
They took part in the annual National Association of Development Organizations Washington Conference this past week. Known as NADO, the group is a national advocacy organization representing the country’s network of regional development organizations.
Humphries says it’s important to lay out projects that benefit Trigg County and western Kentucky to get a piece of the federal funding pie.
click to download audioHumphries says I-24 improvements remain a high priority for leaders in western Kentucky as traffic along the route from Paducah to Nashville increases.
Kentucky allocated $750,000 in 2024 for an I-24 widening study. Tennessee, meanwhile, has already acted on that project, allocating $511 million to widen a corridor of I-24 from Exit 1 near the Kentucky state line to Exit 11 from four lanes to six. Construction is expected to begin in 2033.
Humphries says they are still waiting to get information from the Kentucky study.
click to download audioHumphries calls the widening long overdue.
click to download audioHumphries says the trip also allowed him to attempt to correct some misconceptions about road funding for Land Between the Lakes, which has 420 miles of roads, about 10% of which are maintained by the state.
click to download audioWhile in the capital, the group met face-to-face with Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, as well as Congressmen James Comer and Brett Guthrie.
