SHREVEPORT, La. – On the surface, this appears to be potentially bad news for the ArkLaTex.

After a frenetic legislative session trying to allocate $2.2 billion surplus dollars, it looks like some lawmakers in the northwest Louisiana delegation are being punished for their votes on busting the state’s spending cap.

Reportedly, $140 million earmarked for the new Jimmie Davis bridge project has been removed from the budget.

The bridge falls in Senator Barrow Peacock’s district. In an interview with KTBS 3 News, Peacock explained what happened and where things will go from here.

“This really was a surprise to everybody involved, except for house leadership…and in all honesty, it was not found. A day later, after the session was over because of the complicated method that comforts reports or especially on a bill like a capital outlay bill. What they removed was part of the future funding out the P5 funding for capital outlay. The hopes that I would hope is that this can be restored sometime soon later, later this year, or the beginning of next year. But the scary thing is we want to make sure that it does not derail the project from moving forward,” Peacock said. 

A contract for $361 million has already been awarded to James Construction.

It’s unclear what happens now, but another lawmaker echoed to KTBS 3 News that the money to complete the project can be replaced.