GDOT warns rising construction costs are pushing projects back, seeks major funding for I‑75 South and State Route 316

Georgia Department of Transportation officials told the Senate subcommittee rising construction costs and increased material prices have eroded the state's buying power and forced many projects to be delayed. The agency urged the Legislature to support major investments in the amended FY‑26 budget, including funding for the I‑75 South express lanes, State Route 316 safety upgrades and rural bridge replacements.

GDOT said national indices show highway construction costs have risen substantially since 2020 — for example, resurfacing a two‑lane road is roughly 51% more expensive now and urban widening costs have nearly doubled in some categories — and the result is a roughly 30% loss of purchasing power compared with the National Highway Construction Cost Index. "When costs go up, we adjust our project cost estimates," the GDOT presenter said, adding that physical constraints in multi‑year programming create a cascading effect that pushes projects further into future years.

Agency officials described how one‑time general fund injections in amended '24 and '25 (about $1.5 billion and $1.0 billion, respectively, as described to the committee) allowed GDOT to advance 44 projects and accelerate 25 previously delayed projects. GDOT outlined several large projects in the amended funding: an approximately $516 million design‑build package to widen I‑16, a $74 million widening of I‑95 in the Savannah area, and bids expected in June for State Route 96 work near Macon.

The subcommittee heard a detailed case for I‑75 South express lanes. GDOT characterized the governor's recommended appropriation as the minimum the agency needs to complete design, environmental permitting and right‑of‑way acquisition and to leverage financing for construction. The record shows a house allocation of $1,716,000,000 and a governor's recommendation of about $1,796,000,000 for I‑75 South; GDOT said those sums are intended to finance project readiness and to help extend the project farther south to reduce congestion. GDOT also noted the express lanes corridor is operated under an existing toll‑operator structure, and that payments to that operator account for a large share of project expenditures in the budget presentation.

Janine Miller, introduced as the SRTA/SERTA director, presented toll‑operator data on I‑75 South: a 12‑mile corridor with roughly 5 million trips last year, an average toll of $2.45, and an 84% increase in trips since the toll lanes opened in 2018; GDOT and SRTA said the corridor moves approximately $226 billion in freight value annually, representing about 23% of the state's freight. SRTA said expanding capacity via express lanes can deliver continuous flow for decades and reduce truck delay.

Committee members pressed SRTA and GDOT on tradeoffs: whether adding free lanes or building new bypasses is feasible, and whether the toll‑lane app needs vendor replacement. One senator urged the agency to "fire your vendor" because the app is unreliable; Janine Miller acknowledged the problem and apologized, saying the app is a known challenge. Senators also asked whether GDOT's projections incorporate autonomous vehicle adoption; the agency said those effects are not yet modeled because adoption is not widespread enough to materially change near‑term projections.

The hearing concluded with committee members thanking agency staff; no formal votes were taken during this session.