Lexington pushes to restore funding for double cross-over interchange for Leestown Road
Lexington leaders and residents of Meadowthorpe and other neighborhoods on the city’s fast-growing west side are pushing state elected leaders to restore money in the state transportation budget for a long-delayed double cross-over diamond intersection at the busy New Circle and Leestown Road interchange.
“We have been promised that this project was going to move forward for years,” said Rock Daniels, president of the Meadowthorpe Neighborhood Association.
A double cross-over interchange, similar to the one that was installed on Harrodsburg Road a decade ago, will help keep traffic moving through the busy intersection and help reduce collisions. The Harrodsburg interchange has won several awards for its design.
Money to help start that construction project was included in former Gov. Steve Beshear’s two-year highway plan. But the House version of the bill, which passed the House Tuesday night, no longer includes $10 million to start the project.
House Bill 242 now moves to the Senate in the waning days of the 60-day session. It’s not clear why the road project was removed.
Now local officials are scrambling to get the project back into the Senate version of the two-year highway transportation plan. It’s not clear when the Senate will take up H.B. 242.
“We are all very upset that it’s not in the House bill and I’m working with senators to get the project in the Senate version. We are encouraging people to call their senators,” Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilwoman Jennifer Reynolds said.
Reynolds represents the Leestown Road area. Reynolds is working with Councilman Josh McCurn, who used to represent that area, to get the project funded.
Councilman Richard Moloney, who has served on the council for more than eight years, said the interchange improvement project has been pushed back several times. Moloney previously served on the council prior to his current eight-year stint.
“That side of town always seems to get things pushed off,” Moloney said. “It’s one of the fastest growing areas of town with one of the state’s largest neighborhoods.”
Masterson Station on Leestown Road is believed to be the largest neighborhood in the state.
Initial estimates from Kentucky Transportation Cabinet officials show the project will cost $49 million, which includes both construction costs and buying property and a host of other improvements between Leestown and Georgetown roads on New Circle Road.
Cabinet officials said this week the project is moving forward. Right-of-way acquisition has started and is expected to be completed by 2023. Bidding for the construction of the double-diamond would begin sometime in 2023 if funding is restored for the project, said Natasha Lacy, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Cabinet’s District 7, which includes Fayette County.
Daniels and others have written and called state senators to restore funding for the project.
“We have a billion-dollar surplus,” Daniels said of a reported $1.1 billion surplus reported in July. “We don’t want to hear a few years from now that we don’t have the money.”
That $1.1 billion surplus was for the state’s general fund. Road construction is paid for through road fund dollars, a separate pot of money.
Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, said he is working with senate leaders to get money for the long-delayed project. Thomas represented the Leestown Road area until recently when the Senate seats were re-drawn.
“This project has been in the works for almost 10 years,” Thomas said.
Part of that construction project will also include a sound wall for the Meadowthorpe neighborhood on New Circle Road.
Other neighborhoods that abut New Circle Road, such as Colony near Versailles Road, have sound walls, Daniels said.
“Our neighborhood was built in the late 1940s and early 1950s before New Circle Road,” Daniels said. “Yet, other neighborhoods got sound walls before we did.”
Thomas said money for the sound wall is part of the intersection improvements.
“There have been improvements to Harrodsburg and Versailles Road. It’s time for the Leestown Road,” Thomas said.
This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 4:24 PM.
