The Town Branch Commons project has received another $2.7 million in federal funding, marking the latest boost to an ambitious plan to recover Lexington’s founding waterway and create a state-of-the-art linear urban parkway.
Gov. Steve Beshear appeared Wednesday afternoon in downtown Lexington along with Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, Jeff Fugate, president of the Lexington Downtown Development Authority, and others to announce the funding, which comes from the federal Transportation Alternatives Program. The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government is providing matching funds of $682,554, officials said.
“The Town Branch Commons project is going to yield enormous benefits to the thousands upon thousands of people who live, work, play and visit downtown Lexington,” Beshear said.
The funds will pay for design and construction work along Vine Street between Limestone and Quality streets and will include infrastructure and safety upgrades for LexTran routes.
“Town Branch Commons will be a ribbon of Bluegrass running through our downtown. It will bring new opportunities for economic development, healthy exercise and transportation alternatives, including LexTran, bike and pedestrian improvements,” said Gray, who predicted the linear park eventually will become a hallowed feature of Lexington for “hundreds of years to come.”
The new federal money continues the momentum for Town Branch Commons, following the announcement in late October of a $3.2 million boost in funding through a federal air quality program administered by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
That funding is earmarked for the Town Branch Commons-Midland Section, a half-mile stretch of Midland Avenue between Main and Third Streets. It will pay for a 12-foot-wide multiuse trail, with plans eventually to connect with the Legacy Trail and Town Branch Trail.
The new funding will pay for a variety of work, including bike lanes, green space, lighting upgrades and bus lanes. Fugate, the Downtown Development Authority director heading up the project, described the project as “a simple idea” but technically complex. In the end, he said, it’s about creating an amenity worthy of Lexington’s stature.
“Great cities have great parks,” Fugate said. “Lexington should be no exception.”