The work would be financed by revamping how the state uses about $700 million in settlement funds from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill.

The money is parceled out to the state in $53 million yearly increments.

The legislation would replace a 2014 state law that said 45 percent of the proceeds would be put in the Medicaid Trust Fund, 45 percent in Louisiana's rainy day fund and 10 percent in the Health Trust Fund.

Louisiana has a $14 billion backlog of road and bridge needs, which has set off a scramble to find innovative ways to finance projects.