Work on Polo Club Boulevard has been delayed. Again. Find out why.

After announcing Monday morning that work would begin this week on a long-delayed section of Polo Club Boulevard, city officials reversed themselves and said work likely won’t begin this week.

Although the city has awarded the bid for the $2.9 million contract to build the less than half-mile section of roadway, a notice to proceed to the contractor has not yet been issued as the city and the contractors work out some key details. That means work will not start this week as originally planned, the city announced Monday afternoon.

But construction won’t be delayed long. City officials said they hope work on the road will begin sometime in mid-October.

The long-standing problem with this key connector road is that it does not connect Winchester Road with Todds Road.

Drivers must make a left off of Polo Club at Deer Haven Lane, a right on Wargrave Walk and another left onto Dufane Pointe to connect to a completed section of Polo Club that ends at Todds Road.

The cut through has caused traffic headaches in the surrounding neighborhood for years.

A lawsuit over a key section of land needed to build a 16-foot by 4-foot box culvert and drainage system off Deer Haven Lane has stalled the project for three years. Justin Moore, the land owner, questioned why the city didn’t buy the property rather than seek an easement.

The Fayette Circuit Court ruled in favor of the city but the state Court of Appeals later reversed the circuit court’s decision and ruled in favor of Moore. On Nov. 1, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the city, which allowed the project to move forward.

The project is expected to be completed in July 2020.

Brian Hayes, a city engineer, said construction will begin with a new entrance from Todds Road and on a large drainage culvert in the creek beside Deer Haven Lane.

This story was originally published September 30, 2019 at 11:22 AM.