The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet awarded $1.3 billion of asphalt road paving contracts in the past three years that only one company bid for, according to a free market think tank that wants more oversight of the state’s bidding process to encourage competition.
The new report from the Kentucky Forum for Rights, Economics & Education (KYFREE) found that just one company, L-M Asphalt Partners, received 31.8% of those single-bid paving contracts, with awards totaling $424 million.
Single-bid asphalt contracts have been scrutinized in Kentucky for decades, with critics alleging tacit collusion between several large companies to only bid in certain counties, thus inflating the price and costing taxpayers more money.
Amid increased attention in recent years, 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 significantly higher percentage than neighboring states. Single-bid contracts were typically awarded at a higher cost relative to the cabinet engineer’s estimates, while those with multiple bidders were awarded at a lower cost.
The new KYFREE report focuses largely on the handful of companies that won more than two-thirds of all single-bid paving contracts, noting that a third of the single-bid contracts won by L-M Asphalt Partners were for paving work in Fayette County, where the company has long dominated contracts.
“This latest analysis is further evidence that L-M has an asphalt monopoly in Fayette County,” stated KYFREE President Andrew McNeill. “As a result, millions of dollars of the taxpayers’ money have been wasted while dangerous roads needing improvement have been neglected across the state.”
McNeill touted legislation sponsored by GOP state Rep. Kim Holloway of Mayfield this past session that would require the state auditor to examine the Transportation Cabinet’s paving contracts every other year, using a statistical analysis to detect any potential anti-competitive bidding practices. Holloway’s bill did not receive a committee hearing.
L-M Asphalt Partners did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the KYFREE report.
Transportation Cabinet spokesperson Naitore Djigbenou issued a statement similar to their response to a previous KYFREE report. She said the agency prioritizes competition and works to ensure the best value during each bidding process, as their engineers do not share project estimates publicly.
She added that projects are commonly readvertised to encourage more competitive bids and they no longer post unit prices publicly if a bid is not awarded, as “spurring competition and reducing single-bid contracts has and continues to be our goal.”
The Cabinet also touts figures showing an increase in rejected single-bid contracts in recent years. From 2016 through 2019, the cabinet rejected 47 contracts with a single bid, but that figure increased to 535 single bid rejections from 2020 to 2025. In that latter time frame, 63% of its awarded contracts had more than one bid.
Just like their reports in past years, the new KYFREE analysis shows that many of the top recipients of single-bid contracts share the same owner.
The descended family of Kentucky road paving magnate Leonard Lawson owns not just L-M Asphalt Partners, but also The Allen Company, Walker Construction and Lexington Quarry, which collectively won $106 million of single-bid contracts in this three year period. Together with L-M, these companies received nearly 40% of all single-bid asphalt contract awards.
CRH-Oldcastle is the parent company of Mountain Enterprises and Hinkle Contracting and has a joint venture with Nally & Gibson, with those three companies winning $280 million of single-bid contracts.
Scotty’s Contracting received $214 million in single-bid paving awards in this period, with the report noting it consistently received contracts in Warren County, where it is based, and a few nearby counties.
The asphalt paving companies have long denied that there is any collusion between them and argued that single bid contracts are inevitable based on supply and demand and where companies are located.
