By Robyn Minor, rminor@bgdailynews.com -- 270-783-3249
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Three general corridors for Interstate 66, ranging in price from $352 million to $482 million, have been recommended for further study.
The recommendations come after more than three years of study, public meetings and more study of a broadly defined east-west corridor through southcentral Kentucky, which would connect to one already being built in Eastern Kentucky. Along with I-66, the study looked at the feasibility of building a beltline around Bowling Green, which would be an additional $456 million to $520 million, according to Jeff Moore, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet planner for the Bowling Green office.
The corridors for I-66 are 2,000 feet wide, which gives a fairly broad range for location, and in general two of them run from the Cumberland (Nunn) Parkway, use part of Interstate 65 and connect to the Natcher Parkway. A third route runs from the Cumberland to the Natcher utilizing I-65. (See map, Page 6A)
The first two routes, one of which would be closer to Bowling Green, would connect to the Natcher Parkway near Hadley. The route closest to Bowling Green involves 14.8 miles of new construction and the one slightly farther away is 18.9 miles of new construction.
The third route “would require major widening of I-65 anywhere from eight to 10 lanes,” Moore said.
The expansion would be along 23 miles from exit 20 to exit 43.
The two routes using new construction are the most costly, running through rural, sparsely populated areas but with rugged terrain. Expanding I-65 would cost less but would require construction “under traffic,” Moore said.
There is a fourth option of the study – do nothing.
Doing nothing also is an option in the look at a beltline around Bowling Green, which has two recommended corridors.
“Corridor A (at 24 miles) starts off on the southeast side of the city at the Natcher Parkway and U.S. 231 (a planned interchange), sweeps north, crossing I-65 north of exit 28 and connects back to the Natcher Parkway below Hadley,” Moore said.
“Option B is the longest one at 28 miles,” he said. It follows roughly the same path but connects closer to Hadley.
The southeast side of the beltline likely would involve more dislocation for residents than the I-66 project.
This recommendation ends, for now, the state’s look at I-66 in this area. More funding is needed to do closer scrutiny, including detailed environmental looks and preliminary engineering, Moore said.
Moore said the likelihood of further funding depends on “if the community wants it.”
And the community does likely want to at least look further at it, Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker said.
Walker said I-66 would provide a needed major east-west corridor for the area.
Walker said it would be a boost for the Kentucky TriModal Transpark under construction off U.S. 31-W and other industrial areas that could see both population and job growth near its path.
“Now the beltline is something we hear more about every meeting,” Walker said. “That’s really the only way we are going to solve some of the problems with traffic congestion such as is on Scottsville Road.”
But Walker cautions that even if every path possible in the county was paved, there still would be some congestion.
“But with a beltline, it would give people ability to travel around the area without all the stoplights, etc., and would improve our mobility dramatically,” Walker said.
Following Sept. 11, 2001, people began focusing more on the safety issues of roads, Moore said. And in looking at these particular projects, it was evident that if something happened to dramatically tie up traffic on I-65, it would dump traffic onto city streets.
A beltline around Bowling Green would provide an alternate route, he said.
Both Moore and Walker said the Metropolitan Planning Organization, formed as a result of Bowling Green’s status as a metropolitan statistical area, will look at the projects.
Having the MPO, which includes community involvement, won’t necessarily give automatic help in garnering funding, but does lend a little more weight to requests, Moore said.
But even if the money arrives tomorrow, construction won’t be fast.
Area leaders began looking at a beltline around Bowling Green as early as 1972 and a study of a cross-country Interstate 66 was first put in federal legislation by U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Somerset. A portion of the road is already under construction in Rogers’ area of the state.
“Even if we got the funding for more study ... it would still be anywhere from 10 to 12 years from construction,” Moore. “That’s an enormous amount of money, so we are not going to get it all at once. It would require a huge federal effort.”
Moore said while on paper, the project’s numbers justify a need, there is much more that will weigh into a decision to proceed. Money and public sentiment will be among the deciding factors.
