Eight Caldwell County-specific projects and several including Caldwell and other counties are included in a six-year state highway plan proposed by Gov. Steve Beshear this week.
The governor’s recommended Kentucky Highway Plan for fiscal years 2010 through 2016 was presented to state legislators Tuesday.
The plan, Beshear said, “lays a strategic path to ensure that Kentucky’s most pressing highway improvement projects are realized.
“The national economy has depressed traditional funding for roads,” he said, “but we cannot afford to abandon our Commonwealth’s infrastructure priorities.”
The plan, which includes nearly $11 billion in road work, includes several local projects held over from earlier plans.
The oldest on the list is a reconstruction of the Cadiz Road’s Rock Springs Hill curves, identified as “substandard” by state transportation officials.
The Rock Springs project first appeared on the 2000 highway plan.
The governor’s proposed plan calls for design work on the project to be completed this year, at a cost of $520,000.
It, and the other state-funded work included in the plans are often pushed back due to funding shortfalls, meaning a project newly included in the “six year” plan may take as much as 15 years to complete, state officials said.
Other local projects in the governor’s recommendation include:
• Design work, right-of-way acquisition and utility relocation related to the relocation of U.S. 641 from Fredonia into Lyon County, to the junction of Interstate 24 at the Western Kentucky Parkway.
The design, projected at $3,120,000, and right-of-way acquisition, at $6,300,000, are scheduled to take place this year, according to the proposal. The $3,380,000 utility relocation is scheduled to take place in the 2012 fiscal year (running from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012).
Construction of the first phase of the U.S. 641 relocation, from Marion to Fredonia, is scheduled for the current fiscal year and fiscal year 2011, at a cost of $51.7 million.
• Right-of-way acquisition and utility relocation for a new 2.4-mile connector from Hopkinsville Road to Ky. 293 North.
Both phases are proposed to occur in the current fiscal year, at a combined cost of $4,010,000.
• Construction of a southern connector from Cadiz Road to Hopkinsville Road.
The work, scheduled to begin this year at a cost of $899,900, is funded in the governor’s proposal as a “high priority project.”
• Modifying the horizontal and vertical alignment of a tenth-mile section of U.S. 641 north of the Ky. 902 junction in Fredonia.
Right-of-way acquisition, at $60,000, and utility relocation, at $50,000, are projected in the current fiscal year, with construction, at $300,000, to follow next year.
The project is being financed through safety hazard elimination funds, according to the proposal.
• Three bridge replacement projects on Farmersville Road over Donaldson Creek and one of its forks.
The $3,590,000 project, set to be funded through the federal bridge replacement program, is proposed for this fiscal year and the next.
• Replacing a bridge over Dry Creek on Cadiz Road. The $550,000 project, proposed for completion this year, will be state-funded through the sale of bonds, according to the proposal.
• Realigning the foot of Eagle Street (approximately 125 feet) at its intersection with Hopkinsville Street through recently-vacated property.
Design, right-of-way acquisition, utility relocation and construction are all listed for the current fiscal year in the governor’s plan, at a combined cost of $1,000,000.
• The county, along with Lyon and Hopkins counties, are also included in a plan to reconstruct elements of the existing Western Kentucky Parkway to meet interstate standards as part of the I-69 project.
The $8 million project is scheduled for fiscal year 2012, using federal National Highway System funds.
Other Lyon County projects in the plan include:
• Adding a restroom facility to the eastbound and westbound weigh stations along Interstate 24 in fiscal year 2014, at a cost of $1.9 million.
• Widening U.S. 62 from the end of the Eddyville four-lane to the Western Kentucky Parkway junction.
The $13 million project is scheduled in the current fiscal year.
• Construction of turning lanes at the intersection of U.S. 62 and Ky. 93 in the current fiscal year and fiscal year 2011, at a cost of $990,000.
“The realities of the national economy and a less reliable federal highway trust fund create significant obstacles for states trying to plan for the future,” acting Transportation Secretary Mike Hancock said.
“We have laid out a budgeting strategy to keep Kentucky’s highway program on track for the next several years. However, there are some long-term federal issues — including the health of the highway trust fund — that we hope will be soon addressed.”
Other highlights of the governor’s proposal include:
• $1.9 billion through fiscal year 2016 for the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project.
• A $300 million sale of state road bonds, of which $155 million would be available for new projects.
• $330 million for new bridges over Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake.
• $301 million through the coming biennium, and $611.1 million through fiscal year 2016, for bridge replacements statewide.
