Lexington, KY - Work has begun on the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's (KTC) new "double crossover diamond interchange" (DCD) at Harrodsburg Road and New Circle Road. For years, Harrodsburg Road has been plagued by severe traffic congestion and high accident rates. Traffic signals are placed too close together, there are too many left turns where traffic crosses in front of oncoming traffic, and vehicles must risk life and limb to weave and thread across multiple lanes of traffic. Merging is particularly dangerous for vehicles exiting the New Circle Road outer loop that must cross many lanes of traffic to turn into Corporate Center, and for vehicles traveling south on Harrodsburg Road that must cross two lanes of traffic to turn into Beaumont.
About 35,000 vehicles move through the Harrodsburg Road interchange every day, and it has the highest crash rate of any major artery in Lexington. From Jan. 1, 2008 through Dec. 31, 2010, 484 crashes were reported on the half-mile stretch of Harrodsburg Road that runs between Beaumont Centre Parkway and Alexandria Drive. The first DCD in Springfield, Mo., experienced a 60 percent reduction in crashes during its first six months of operation.
Since June of 2010, I have served as an unofficial sounding board for the KTC's public education campaign for the Harrodsburg Road project. The KTC's engineers and consultants were generous to take time to educate me and other city officials on the various phases of the project, and to help us understand how the new design is expected to improve traffic flow and reduce accidents. To be honest, crossing over to the left side of Harrodsburg Road as you drive under New Circle Road takes a while to get your head around. But after talking to the engineers, seeing the design plans, viewing the many video models of DCDs (also known as diverging diamond interchanges) available on YouTube, and reading the many favorable reviews of DCDs in the national press, I am excited that Lexington will be joining other communities that have used this French design marvel to solve their most serious traffic congestion and safety issues.
Early on, I had concerns about plans to include a five foot wide sidewalk on the west side of the interchange. Having biked a nationally recognized trail system with other community leaders during Commerce Lexington's visit to Madison, Wis., several years ago, I learned that sometimes you only have one chance to install a new trail or bike path when the state redesigns a major intersection or interchange. With the KTC's new bike trail along Harrodsburg Road leading to Wilmore, and the service roads and generous right of way located on the east side of Harrodsburg Road between Man-O-War and New Circle, I believed we were faced with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to improve safety and connectivity for pedestrian and bicycle traffic along the Harrodsburg Road corridor. Thanks to the responsive collaboration of the KTC and its District 7 project team, the final design for the new DCD includes eight foot wide bike and pedestrian trails on both sides of Harrodsburg Road, running all the way from Beaumont Centre Parkway to Alexandria Drive.
The new double crossover diamond interchange at Harrodsburg Road and New Circle Road promises to significantly improve traffic flow and reduce accidents. Take a moment and watch some of the DCD videos on the KTC District 7 project website, a link for which can be found on my 10th District Council webpage. The new traffic configuration will begin in late July or August, and work on the intersection is expected to wrap up by mid-November.