Part of Clays Mill Road is about to be shut down for months. Find out where and why.
Beginning Sunday and throughout the summer, part of Clays Mill Road will be closed as the city continues a widening project that began 10 years ago.
Clays Mill will be closed between Stratford Drive and Pasadena Drive from May 23 through Aug. 10. Only local traffic will be permitted. The city will detour traffic onto Harrodsburg Road via Pasadena and Lane Allen Road, the city announced in a news release Tuesday afternoon.
Doug Burton, director of Lexington’s Division of Engineering, said the city’s goal is to have all the work that impacts traffic finished before Fayette County schools reopen in the fall. He said closing the road completely to through traffic will allow the work to go forward much more quickly than single-lane closures would.
The widening project was started in 2011. Once finished, miles of the thoroughfare will have been improved to include three lanes rather than two; new bike lanes that stretch the entire length of the project in both directions; better traffic signals at Passadena, Hill N Dale and Rosemont Garden at Lane Allen; a new storm water collection system, and new curbs, gutters and sidewalks. The city said the project also includes planting more than 250 trees.
The last portion of the project will widen the corridor between Waco and Harrodsburg roads. That section is expected to be finished by December 2022, the city said.
“This is a huge infrastructure improvement project to widen and improve Clays Mill, while preserving its fundamental character as a neighborhood artery,” Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton said in the release.
Clays Mill Road runs through three Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council districts. Council members said in the release that though closing the road will be inconvenient, they hope doing the work all at once will cause less disruption overall.
Lexington Catholic High School, Clays Mill Elementary School and Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary School are all on that section of road.
The city announced plans for construction on the four-mile section of the road last fall.
This story was originally published May 18, 2021 at 5:43 PM.
