A Georgia House committee studying the state's transportation costs heard what other states have – the cost to build and repair roads has skyrocketed since 2020.

Asphalt resurfacing costs rose 42% from calendar year 2020 to 2025. Interstate asphalt resurfacing costs are up 62%, Walt Taylor, a civil engineer for the Georgia Department of Transportation, told the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Transportation Infrastructure and Vehicle Regulation on Friday.

The cost of concrete drainage stormpipes increased by 127% from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2026, while the cost of inlet structures increased by 196%, Taylor said.

The National Highway Construction Cost Index shows highway construction costs have grown by 70% since 2021, Meg Pirkle, chief engineer for the Georgia Department of Transportation, told the committee. Indexing the same data with the state budget shows a 66% increase in costs for Georgia.

"The GDOT state budget, which is essentially motor fuel tax collections, increased by 36%," Pirkle said. "So you can see that the gas tax collections have lost most of their buying power since 2020."

The suspension of the fuel tax from March to May further drained fuel tax collections. Collections in May were $196.6 million lower when compared to last year, which was attributed to the suspension approved by state lawmakers and Gov. Brian Kemp.

The money to replace the lost revenue will come from the state surplus, according to the governor's office.

The General Assembly has provided additional funding to the transportation budget for the past three years, which has been a "huge help," Pirkle said.

Kemp included $1.68 billion in his mid-fiscal year 2026 budget adjustment to build new north and south express lanes along a stretch of I-75 in Henry County. Because of the high volume, between 45% and 60% of drivers can't get into the current express lanes, per his budget pitch to lawmakers. Nearly 200,000 vehicles travel the artery daily, and most of them are trucks hauling goods, he said.

The funding woes have consequences.

"However, because GDOT is legally required to maintain a fiscally constrained program, rising construction costs force hard choices," Pirkle said. "When inflation causes a project cost to increase, it means we have to move something else out of our balanced statewide transportation plan."

The market for highway construction has not reset and will not return to pre-2020 prices, according to Pirkle.

The House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Transportation Infrastructure and Vehicle Regulation is evaluating the state's transportation networks and regulations in a series of meetings, which includes the road construction cost increases presented on Friday. The committee will present its findings before the General Assembly convenes in January 2027.

Georgia is not the only state with transportation funding issues.

A June report from the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations shows that Tennessee needs roughly $1.6 billion in fiscal year 2028 just to maintain its existing infrastructure and $3.6 billion to make improvements as the state continues to grow.

Tennessee is taking a different approach to ease traffic in one of its largest metropolitan areas.

The Tennessee Transportation Modernization Board took the next step in constructing toll lanes along a 26-mile corridor from Murfreesboro to Nashville by approving a private consortium of companies that will oversee the project and pay the state billions over the next 50 years.

The companies will fund 100% of the $9.2 billion project and the state will receive $24.8 billion over the next 50 years, Brian Ledford, major projects bureau chief for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, told the board.