Report says Kentucky awarded $1.3B in single-bid asphalt contracts from 2023 to 2025

Kentucky awarded about $1.3 billion in asphalt road paving contracts over the past three years that, according to a new report, involved only one bidder for each project, according to findings released July 7 by the Kentucky Forum for Rights, Economics & Education (KYFREE). The group said the pattern has drawn long-running scrutiny in Kentucky and argued that the state should strengthen oversight of its procurement process to encourage more competition and reduce the risk of monopolistic outcomes.

KYFREE’s analysis focused on Kentucky Transportation Cabinet awards for asphalt paving from 2023 through 2025 and found that many projects were not competed in the normal way. The report characterizes these as “single-bid” awards, meaning only one company submitted a bid for a given contract, and it argues that such contracting can limit price and performance checks that come from multiple bids.

The report highlights the role of L-M Asphalt Partners, identifying the company as the single bidder for a significant share of the contracts in KYFREE’s dataset. KYFREE said L-M Asphalt Partners received 31.8% of the single-bid paving contracts, with awards totaling $424 million, and it said a meaningful portion of those projects were in Fayette County, where the company has, according to the group, long been dominant in contract awards.

KYFREE also pointed to state-level concerns that predate the new report. The group said a legislative oversight committee in Frankfort released a report in 2024 that found a majority of asphalt-related contracts from 2018 to 2023 received only a single bid, a higher share than in neighboring states. In that earlier review, KYFREE reported that single-bid contracts were typically awarded at higher costs than the cabinet’s internal engineer estimates, while contracts with multiple bidders tended to come in closer to or below those estimates.

The new KYFREE report frames its findings as an accountability issue for public spending and suggests that increased scrutiny of how asphalt bids are solicited could reduce the concentration of awards and improve competitive pressure. The report’s emphasis is on procurement transparency and oversight, particularly in categories where only one company bids repeatedly, rather than on any single contract dispute.

Publicly reported concerns about single-bid asphalt contracts in Kentucky have been recurring for years, and KYFREE’s conclusions place renewed attention on how the Transportation Cabinet structures solicitation, qualification, and bid opportunities for paving projects. The report adds to the policy debate about whether the state is getting enough price competition to meet taxpayer expectations for large infrastructure spending.

While the report identifies a concentration of awards and calls for reform, it does not, on its face, establish that any specific contract was unlawful or that collusion occurred. KYFREE’s focus is on outcomes and process, using contract-award patterns to argue that current practices have not produced robust bidding competition.

The next steps for addressing the concerns highlighted by KYFREE would depend on what, if any, changes Kentucky Transportation Cabinet leaders and lawmakers make to procurement oversight and bidding rules. With the findings drawing attention both to recent contract awards and to prior legislative review results, the issue is likely to re-enter policy discussions in Frankfort and among transportation oversight bodies concerned with the cost and competitiveness of roadwork contracting.