Underpass to be built for Lexington’s popular Legacy Trail at this key intersection
A portion of Lexington’s popular Legacy Trail will soon go under a major, busy Lexington street.
As part of the widening of Newtown Pike between New Circle Road and Interstate 75/Interstate 64, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet will build an underpass below Newtown Pike at Citation Boulevard.
The underpass will cost $1.5 million, said Natasha Lacy, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
Construction on the widening of Newtown Pike and the underpass was scheduled to begin earlier this month but was delayed due to weather and other issues. The project, including the building of the underpass, will take between two and three years to complete, transportation officials have said.
The widening of Newtown Pike is necessary due to the uptick in truck traffic along that route. The Lexington road will be widened to six lanes in that area, said Chris Evilia, director of the Lexington Metropolitan Planning Organization, which helps plan long-term state and federal transportation projects.
Users of the Legacy Trail, which stretches from the Kentucky Horse Park in Scott County to downtown Lexington, have long complained about the intersection at Citation and Newtown along the 22-mile trail. It can take a long time to cross Newtown Pike at Citation Boulevard.
It’s also dangerous.
With the widening of the road to six lanes, that’s too much ground to cover for cyclists and pedestrians to safely cross Newtown Pike, transportation planners said.
“That’s a long way to cross,” Evilia said. “It’s anything but comfortable given the volume of truck traffic at that intersection.”
The issue of safety at that section of the Legacy Trail came to a head in 2021 when a section of the trail was closed along Newtown Pike during the construction of an Amazon facility. Legacy Trail users said they were given little or no notice of the partial closure of the trail. The trail was re-routed along the shoulder of Newtown Pike during the construction of the Amazon building.
Evilia said constructing an underpass or overpass for the trail has long been discussed and in the plans for future improvements to Newton Pike even prior to the 2021 kerfuffle around the partial closure and detour of the Legacy Trail.
Evilia said the transportation cabinet hopes to keep the trail open during construction of the underpass and will post detours before construction begins.
“They are going to focus on (building) during the overnight hours if there is a closure,” Evilia said.
As part of the widening project, there will be additional bike and pedestrian paths built along that section of Newtown Pike, he said.
