The Oklahoma Legislature overwhelmingly approved a transportation funding plan May 27 intended to pump $170 million more each year for road and bridgework without raising taxes.

The bill – HB1078 – would add $17.5 million next year for the state Transportation Department, The Oklahoman reported. Road maintenance would receive $15 million and $500,000 for public transit.

House lawmakers voted 96-2 for the funding bill and sent it to the Senate, which passed it 48-0. The plan now moves to Gov. Brad Henry for the final OK.

The plan includes a “lockbox” provision intended to keep future legislatures from diverting the new money from roads and bridges.

Contributions would gradually increase by either $17 million or $35 million each year during the next decade to a sustained level of $170 million annually, the newspaper reported. Funds would be generated from surplus revenue in state reserves.

Currently, the highway agency receives about $200 million annually from state fuel taxes for road and bridgework.

“We have made an historic investment in road and bridge maintenance in our state,” Sen. Kenneth Corn, D-Poteau, said in a written statement. Corn said drivers “will begin seeing the results of this bill before the end of the year. In the coming decade, hundreds of bridges will be replaced and repaired while thousands of miles of highways will be resurfaced.”

State transportation officials have said Oklahoma has an $8.4 billion backlog of road and bridge needs. More than 3,000 miles of the state’s more than 12,000 miles of highway need to be repaired or replaced. In addition, about 1,600 of the state’s more than 6,700 bridges are either deficient or obsolete.