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July 15, 2009

Four-lane Ky. 1247 will open late this year

By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus The Commonwealth Journal Wed Jul 15, 2009, 08:14 PM EDT

Few people recall that new Ky. 1247, when completed later this year, will follow basically the same path recommended for the south-eastern bypass (Ky. 914) more than 30 years ago.

“I recommended (the route through Elihu for the southeastern bypass) to either (former governor) Julian Carroll or (former governor) Wendell Ford, one of the other ... and it was put in the six-year (Transportation Cabinet) plan,” said Oscar Hornsby, then chair of the Democratic party in Pulaski County and spokesman for Democrat governors.

Hornsby’s idea got lost in the political process. However, more than three decades have passed and Hornsby’s recommendation, now credited to someone else, is about to become reality.

New Ky. 1247, a four-lane superhighway, will be ready late this fall to take motorists from southeastern bypass near Ferguson through Elihu and past John Sherman Cooper Power Plant to a partial cloverleaf interchange of U.S. 27 and Ky. 90 in northern Burnside. The interchange is on the same construction schedule as Ky. 1247 and should be ready for traffic late this fall.

Hornsby still scratches his head about the strange evolution of the southeastern bypass.

“Oh, it was politics, all right,” he laughed. Instead of taking the then-preferred route through Cedar Grove to Burnside, the western half of four-lane southeastern bypass shifted northward and ended up at U.S. 27, the very busy road it was designed to bypass.

Construction of the eastern half of the south-eastern bypass, from Rush Branch Road to Ky. 80, mystifyingly ended up as a two-lane road. No-body could understand why the ballyhooed route from Lake Cumberland Com-merce Complex (indus-trial park) to I-75 was built as a two-lane road while the four-lane sec-tion took motorists the other way to U.S. 27. Reportedly, right-of-way for a four-lane road was acquired.

Efforts by the Com-monwealth Journal to find out why were stone-walled from Frankfort to Somer-set. The rumor mill had it that the Transpo-tation Cabinet got its feelings hurt by some disagree-ments over an-other road in Pulaski County. The eastern half of the southeastern bypass is now categorized as a “needs to be four-laned” project.

Obviously, what’s done is done, and the “Ohio Navy” is anxiously await-ing completion of the new Ky. 1247. It will allow motorists from the North to leave Ky. 80 east of Somerset, travel Ky. 914 to Murphy Avenue Exten-sion and continue south to the U.S.27-Ky. 90 inter-change in northern Burn-side. A new Ky. 1247 bridge, 521 feet long, pro-vides a scenic overlook 85 feet above Pitman Creek.

Bill Chaney, Branch 1 manager for project de-livery and preservation at the Department of High-ways’ District 8, said the paving crew working on U.S. 27 in the Eubank area is scheduled to move to the Ky. 1247 project near the end of August and start applying black-top. Hinkle Contracting Corporation, of Somerset and Paris, is general con-tractor for most of new four-lane U.S. 27 and the Ky. 1247 project.

Elmore Greer and Sons, London, is general contractor for the partial cloverleaf interchange at Burnside. The uncom-pleted “big city type” maze of ramps opened to traffic in February. Chaney said the contractor is currently working on traffic signals and guardrails and there still will be some mod-ification of ramp routes.

The partial cloverleaf interchange is designed to connect the planned four-laning of U.S. 27 through Burnside to the entrance of General Burnside Island State Park; the current four-laning of Ky. 1247 from near the inte-rchange through Cedar Grove to Ky. 914 (south-eastern bypass); and Ky. 90 west to the new bridge over Lake Cumberland and to near the Bronston Post Office.

The interchange over-pass takes through traffic on Ky. 90 and Ky. 1247 above U.S. 27 and Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks. Appropriately designed ramps and signs direct traffic north, south, east and west onto the motor-ist’s road of choice.

Travelers on U.S. 27, both north and south, stay on the four-lane highway and go beneath the overpass. They also may take a ramp and merge westerly with Ky. 90, or a ramp and merge easterly with Ky. 1247.

Eastbound motorists on Ky. 90 may select a ramp to either north or south U.S. 27 or stay basically straight ahead and go above U.S. 27 to Ky. 1247. Westbound traffic on Ky. 1247 will have the same inter-change options as eastbound traffic.

Hornsby no longer chairs the Democratic party or makes recom-mendations on roads. Now president of State-wide Transport Corpor-ation, he says he has washed his hands of politics. However, Hornsby has mental flashbacks when he looks out his office window at busy traffic on six-lane U.S. 27.

“I didn’t have anything to do with all those stoplights,” he grins. “I recommended six driving lanes with turn lanes.”

A Commonwealth Jour-nal reporter was present when Hornsby during a meeting at (the former) Holiday Inn during the late 1970s recommended that U.S. 27 be expanded to six lanes.

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