By Jordan Gerard | State Affairs
With the 2026 legislative session and new budget talks on the horizon, officials are keeping a watchful eye on funding improvements for a stretch of highway that has seen nearly a thousand crashes in recent years.
Senate Appropriations and Transportation Committee Chairman David Farnsworth and Senate President Pro Tempore T.J. Shope are working to protect the funding for State Route 347 amid potential budget cuts.
The state highway is slated for upgrades that include a complete corridor widening, a new overpass at Riggs Road and intersection improvements. The improvements will better accommodate increased traffic volume resulting from the city’s population boom over the last 20 years. The road was last widened in the 1990s, according to a Senate Republican Caucus news release.
“I am of a very strong opinion that since people are dying on that highway and especially that intersection … that if we do not improve that intersection as soon as possible, then the deaths of those individuals are on our hearts and our shoulders,” Farnsworth said.
