Lexington, KY - On Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil crawled out of his burrow and predicted an early spring. That's great news for the folks at Lexington's Division of Streets, Roads & Forestry, who worked many nights plowing snow and putting down more than 13,000 tons of salt to make our streets safer for drivers. In addition to clearing several feet of snow, Lexington took on some major road projects last year, and there's more to come.
Last year, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KTC) completed almost half of the Newtown Pike extension, a project on the drawing board for decades. The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) also created a new pedestrian-friendly corridor on South Limestone that connects UK with Lexington's downtown. The South Limestone project was inspired by the economic synergy that exists between the University of Michigan and downtown Ann Arbor. The new South Limestone streetscape includes bike lanes, benches, street lamps, on-street parking, new sanitary and storm sewers, and underground utilities, all to make UK's connection to downtown a safe and pedestrian-friendly place for students to walk. Last year, LFUCG also completed the first part of the streetscape project for Main Street and Vine Street, which won Awards of Distinction from the American Planning Association and the International Downtown Association.
This year is shaping up to be just as busy for road projects. Construction has begun on the KTC's project to widen Clays Mill Road south of New Circle Road, which is expected to be completed over the next several years. However, work on Clays Mill between New Circle Road and Picadome Elementary has not yet received state or federal funding, and the project is not yet included in the KTC's six-year highway plan. The Lexington Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), which oversees state and federal road projects in Fayette and Jessamine Counties, will need to pursue funding to complete work on this vital transportation corridor.
The KTC is also finalizing its plans to reconfigure the New Circle Road interchange at Harrodsburg Road by installing a "diverging diamond interchange." According to the KTC, this French engineering marvel will improve traffic flow and reduce left-turn-related collisions at Lexington's most dangerous intersection. You'll be hearing more on the redesign of the interchange at New Circle Road and Harrodsburg Road in the months ahead. For now, you can learn more about diverging diamond interchanges in a recent article in Time Magazine and you can find a number of video overviews of DDIs on YouTube.
LFUCG also recently began work to complete the second half of our streetscape improvements to Main Street and Vine Street. This work will upgrade sidewalks, streetlights and infrastructure east of Martin Luther King Boulevard, and should be completed before the Fourth of July festivities begin downtown.
The arrival of spring also means that it's time to repair potholes and repave our roads. Last year, the Urban County Council began dividing up Lexington's road repaving funds based on the percentage of bad roads located within each council district. While the 10th District's poor roads also gives us the largest share of repaving dollars, currently 12.7 percent, the small amount of state funds allocated by the council for repaving each year has not kept up with even new road repairs that are needed. As we leverage state and federal dollars for very worthy road projects, we must remember to spend some our own funds on simple road maintenance, so that Lexington's growing list of road repairs does not become unmanageable and beyond our reach.