by Bill Mardis
Commonwealth Journal
Science Hill —
The new tentative date to open the northern bypass (I-66) and the western end of Ky. 914 is Friday, September 10. Two days of heavy rain about two weeks ago held up construction and scuttled a planned opening tomorrow, beginning of the Labor Day holiday.
Bill Chaney, branch manager for project delivery and preservation for the Kentucky Department of Highways’ District 8, said “ ... we’re shooting for September 10 to allow traffic on the new roads.” The sections to be opened are Ky. 914 from Ky. 80 at Saline to Cumberland Parkway, and the realigned Cumberland Parkway (I-66 or northern bypass) from Fishing Creek to U.S. 27 about two miles north of Somerset. A meeting of engineers from the highway department and Hinkle Contracting Corporation is scheduled this coming Tuesday to firmly establish a date for opening the roads.
Chaney said the transition point where the new section of Cumberland Parkway veers slightly northward near Fishing Creek bridge to near the top of Fishing Creek hill will accommodate two-way traffic for a time until construction is complete in the transition area.
At the same time traffic is allowed on the new roads, a half-mile section of existing Cumberland Parkway from just east of Fishing Creek bridge east to North Hart Road will be closed and barricaded. Barricades on the east end of the closed section of the parkway will be located just west of the recently installed traffic signals at the Ky. 914 intersection with Cumberland Parkway.
Cumberland Parkway, since it opened in 1973, has been the main western entrance into Somerset. It was the first four-lane highway from outside the county leading into Somerset. Local officials protested the closing of the section of Cumberland Parkway to no avail.
Highway department officials contend the exit from I-66 onto Ky. 914 affords more ways to get to the main business district even though both exits off the interstate are more than two miles from business clusters in Somerset.
Butch Ledford, Hinkle’s former vice president for paving and currently a semi-retired public relations employee for the general contractor, took a reporter on a tour of the soon-to-be-opened highways. Contractors are working feverishly to put final touches on the stretches of roadways and get ready for traffic.
Blacktopping is nearing completion. The interstate and Ky. 914 have two 12-foot driving lanes in both directions. Outside shoulders are 10 feet wide, and inside shoulders, bordering depressed medians, are four feet wide.
The I-66 section of Cumberland Parkway, from Fishing Creek east to four-lane U.S. 27 two miles north of Somerset, is built to interstate specifications. Big green interstate signs, already installed, mark exits to nearby Somerset and Burnside; west to Bowling Green and north to Lexington.
The area is a maze of blacktop ribbons and entrance and exit ramps. A big slice of a community called Pleasant Hill is smothered beneath tentacles of twisting interchanges. Although the roadways are well signed, motorists are going to be confused at times until they get used to the new highways, Ledford noted.
Two exits lead into Somerset from the interstate. Taking exit 86 from I-66 at the southwestern bypass (914) interchange will mean driving about 2,000 feet south along a newly constructed ramp to traffic signals at the existing Cumberland Parkway. Then, motorists may turn left and travel 2.4 miles along the parkway to Traffic Light No. 3 at U.S. 27. Or, motorists may continue east on Ky. 914 (southwestern bypass) and choose from several exits, including Oak Hill Road, Slate Branch Road and others to reach the Somerset business district.
North of town, at the U.S. 27 interchange, motorists on I-66 may take exit 88A to U.S. 27 and travel about two miles south to Somerset. Or, they may take exit 88B to north U.S. 27 toward Stanford and Lexington.
The 2.4-mile section of Cumberland Parkway from the Ky. 914 interchange east to Somerset henceforth will be a part of Ky. 80; so says already installed signs. The former parkway leads directly across U.S. 27 into Ky. 80 bypass, the existing four-lane highway leading through the northern and eastern Somerset to London. As previously noted, the newly constructed Cumberland Parkway has evolved into a section of I-66, the corridor of which leads west along Cumberland Parkway to I-65 north of Bowling Green.
Opening of these two final sections of highways marks completion of nearly $200 million in road construction in Pulaski County during the past decade. Highway department officials say no other rural county in the state can match the system of roads in Pulaski County.
