Eight road projects are listed for Caldwell County in the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Six-Year Highway Plan released this week.

But completing all eight projects within six years will not be likely, state officials said.

“The annual funding expectations for this edition of the highway plan have been balanced against projects scheduled for that year for every category except the State Construction Program (SP),” Transportation Secretary Joe Prather wrote in a cover letter accompanying the plan.

“As a result of executive and legislative branch decisions dating back to the year 2000, the SP account has not been fiscally balanced for the past four editions of the highway plan.

“Our efforts to also factor inflation into the costs of projects throughout the 2008 highway plan have now yielded an SP account that contains over $3 billion more in projects than funding exists to finance.

“In truth, the SP account is essentially a ‘15-Year Plan’ rather than a ‘Six-Year Plan,’” he wrote.

Five of the eight projects included in Caldwell County’s section of the highway plan are SP projects.

They include:

• The relocation of U.S. 641 (phase II) from Fredonia to Interstate 24 at the Western Kentucky Parkway.

According to the plan, design work and right-of-way acquisition are scheduled in the state’s 2010 fiscal year.

Utility relocation is listed to take place in 2012. The project carries a cost of $13,710,000.

• The reconstruction of substandard curbs at Rock Springs Hill on Ky. 139 South, a project included in the highway plan since 2000.

The current plan calls for design work in the 2010 fiscal year, at a cost of $520,000.

• A new connector from the Hopkinsville Road to Ky. 293 North.

The 2.4-mile connector has been on the highway plan since 2002. Right-of-way acquisition and utility relocation are listed to occur in the 2010 fiscal year, at a combined cost of $4,010,000.

• A bridge replacement on Ky. 139 South over Dry Creek. The plan calls for construction to occur in the 2009 fiscal year, at a cost of $260,000.

• The realignment of the foot of Eagle Street to the intersection of Hopkinsville Street through recently-vacated property at the eastern beginning of the Princeton business district.

Design and right-of-way acquisition are listed for 2009, at a cost of $400,000.

Utility relocation and construction are scheduled in 2010, at a cost of $600,000.

The other three projects on the list are federally-funded.

They include:

• Design work for a southern connector from Ky. 139 to Hopkinsville Road, at a cost of $860,000.

The project is being funded as a high priority project, according to the plan.

• Modifying the horizontal and vertical alignment on U.S. 641 north of the junction of Ky. 902 at Fredonia, work funded as a safety hazard elimination project.

Right-of-way and utility work were listed to occur in the 2008 fiscal year, with construction in 2009. The project carries a listed cost of $410,000.

• Replacing three bridges and approaches on Ky. 139 over Donaldson Creek and two of its forks.

The $2.4 million project is being funded with federal bridge replacement funds.

Right-of-way and utility work were scheduled in the 2008 fiscal year, with construction to follow in 2009.

A narrative accompanying the plan acknowledged the $3 billion-plus underfunding of state projects.

“In this funding environment, the public is bound to be frustrated by the government’s inability to meet such highway needs satisfactorily,” transportation officials wrote.

“Managing expectations is a difficult challenge when the needs are great, patience is exhausted and satisfaction is less than immediate.

“This is the backdrop against which the 2008/2009 highway plan was developed.”

Among the plan’s other projects:

• A widening of U.S. 62 in Lyon County from the end of the four-lane in Eddyville to its intersection with the Western Kentucky Parkway.

Construction on the state-funded project is listed to begin in 2010, according to the plan. The cost is listed at $13,090,000.

• Construction of turning lanes at the intersection of U.S. 62 and Ky. 93 in Eddyville, at a cost of $970,000. Right-of-way acquisition, utility relocation and construction are listed to occur in 2009.

• Repairing pavement on a 10.5-mile stretch of I-24 in Lyon and Caldwell counties, at a cost of $15,000,000.

• Grade and drainage work on the relocation of U.S. 641 from Marion to Fredonia.

The work, split into two projects, is listed to occur in 2010 and 2011 at a cost of $52,040,000.