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Nicholasville planners hear eastern bypass project update

Construction could begin by 2014

November 24, 2010|By Mike Moore and Amanda Baumfeld | news@jessaminejournal.com

Map courtesy Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

With funding available for design and right-of-way acquisition, members of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet made a presentation on the proposed eastern bypass to the Nicholasville Planning and Zoning Commission Monday night.

“It’s back on track so to speak,” Robert W. Nunley, branch manager with the cabinet, said. “It’s been around — we had a public hearing back in 2003, and there has not been any major activity since then. Now we’re starting back up again; we have some funding in place.”

The project that proposes to alleviate traffic congestion throughout Nicholasville will be moving forward beginning with right-of-way acquisition in spring 2012, Nunley said.

A map of the proposed route cuts through several housing areas, but cabinet officials have plans for helping homeowners.

“Any homes that are going to be impacted by the project will be acquired, and those homeowners will be relocated,” said Natasha F. Lacy, public information officer for the cabinet. “This is the normal process of highway construction projects.”

Lacy said construction could start on the long-awaited, $42 million project in the fall of 2014.

“The ‘C’ phase is currently non-six-year (state road plan),” Lacy said. “Construction depends on available funding, how speedily the purchasing of right-of-way proceeds and the moving of utilities.”

The cabinet plans to begin the right-of-way acquisitions in spring 2012; in fall 2013, it plans to begin utility relocations.

During a November 2009 chamber of commerce luncheon, Nunley told those in attendance that the transportation cabinet advertised the Phase 2, or design portion of the project, which runs from U.S. 27 to Ky. 39.

During the luncheon, he targeted fall 2011 for the right-of-way plans to be submitted, if the funding was in place.

“A lot of right-of-way is required in that area. We anticipate it will take two years to get that done, as well as any utilities that need to be relocated,” he said at that time.

The eastern bypass around Nicholasville has been advanced with $3.85 million for planning and design and is now funded with a reliable funding source of federal funds.

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