Anyone traveling this holiday season can tell you just how busy Interstate 65 is. Carrying between 30,000 and more than 100,000 vehicles a day in various sections in Kentucky, I-65 is speculated to be the third-busiest north-south corridor in the United States.

Because of that, six-laning a 50-mile section from the Cumberland Parkway to Elizabethtown will be a legislative priority this session, according to House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green.

“One of the things I feel strongest about is finishing up the six-laning of I-65,” Richards said.

Richards said the portion of the road near Bowling Green that has been six-laned has become much safer - “There has not been one traffic fatality,” he said - and Rep. Rob Wilkey, D-Scottsville, agrees that completing the road should be a top priority. Yet Wilkey is concerned about what funding may be available for the gigantic six-year road plan.

Lawmakers will likely discuss some options to generate or shift funding in the plan, since billions of federal dollars are currently obligated to be spent on two bridges over the Ohio River. Kentucky’s share of those projects: $4 billion over 15 years.

“If we can come up with alternative funding for those big projects ... it takes a lot of pressure off the road fund,” Wilkey said.

The possibility of a toll for the bridges may be considered, he said, and there’s discussion about allowing the gas tax to be adjusted more than once a year.

“That’s a holdover from when it was a big deal to recalibrate the pumps,” he said. “The statute says the tax is 9 percent on the wholesale price of gasoline. We allow (the wholesale base calculation) to move no more than 10 percent once a year.”

That is unlike the state’s standard sales tax, whose revenue fluctuates as frequently as does the price of goods.

“We may allow it to be adjusted like once a quarter. It may mean one or two more pennies on the gallon,” Wilkey said. “The presumption is that it would generate more money for the road fund ... But I’m not sure if the (governor’s) administration will propose that or not.”

Chuck Wolfe, a spokesman for the Transportation Cabinet, acknowledged that both the idea of tolls for the Louisville bridges and the possibility of a gas tax calculation change have been brought up to Gov. Steve Beshear.

“But nothing has been decided on any of those,” Wolfe said. “Where the cabinet is right now is that the new administration is trying to size up the budget situation.”

The transportation cabinet is going over its road project priorities, which will then be vetted by the governor, Wolfe said. It must then be presented to lawmakers within 10 days after Beshear presents his budget.

The Barren River Area Development District is also hoping to make the I-65 widening completion a priority.

The need for interstate improvements is a major topic across the country, according to Jeff Moore, branch manager for planning at the Division of Highways in Bowling Green.

“The system is 50 years old and is in need of work,” Moore said. “It is important to us economically in terms of movement of freight and tourism but also for our safety and security.”

Just Thursday, an accident in Hart County - where the interstate is still two lanes in each direction - had the road narrowed to one-lane, and motorists were encouraged to use U.S. 31-W as an alternate.

“There are studies ... that show for each minute delay in traffic there is a nine-minute ripple effect,” Moore said.

Moore said residents still waiting on holiday packages to arrive could be feeling such ripple effects.

“The interstates get us the stuff we need,” he said. “Our warehouses are on the road these days.”

Interstate 65 has as much as 50 percent truck traffic, Moore said, and the busiest section of I-65 between the Kentucky-Tennessee border and Elizabethtown is in Warren County, from Exits 22 to 28, which sees nearly 49,000 vehicles a day. Midway between Cave City and Elizabethtown, where the road is still four lanes, traffic is between 31,000 to 36,000 vehicles a day - a section where many crashes still are occurring.

“While traffic numbers are important to look at when deciding when to widen the road, it’s also important to look at the kind of traffic,” Moore said. “Trucks are a lot bigger now than they used to be.”

Moore said there are about 10 miles of the 50-mile I-65 stretch that still need to be six-laned in this district. Those 10 miles would be done in two or three segments, but at least part of it already has the stage set for the widening, Moore said.

The last time the state repaved between Cave City and Horse Cave, it laid down a very wide inside shoulder where the widening would occur, he said. When the roads are six-laned, they will be divided by a concrete barrier.

There is a safety tradeoff with those types of barriers, Moore said. Some vehicles may bounce off the walls into their own direction of traffic, “but it dramatically cuts down on the high-speed, crossing the median, head-on fatal crashes.”

As the road is widened, it also will include the installation of “smart signs” that will electronically display traffic alerts, weather conditions and Amber alerts. The signs also will have cameras to keep an eye on the nearby roads.

“We already have some of these in operation,” Moore said.

The older generation models are south of Smiths Grove, on the Natcher Parkway and in Hart County.

The ultimate goal is to be able to give motorists early warnings about driving conditions on I-65 anywhere along the road from southern Indiana to northern Tennessee. Moore said his district has nicknamed the system TIGR - Traveler Information for Going Reliably.