By: Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County TimesIf you use Carol Malone Boulevard as your main route through Grayson, you may want to begin considering other ways to get to and from work or home. Construction on a road widening project was set to begin on Monday, with barrel placements, and it’s expected to last for more than a year.
All rerouting is expected to be done, and work to begin in earnest, by this Friday.
Allen Blair, with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, noted this is the culmination of a project that started more than 15 years ago.
Blair explained that the project will provide wider travel lanes and new right and left turn lanes, including additional turn lanes onto US 60, among other work to “reduce congestion, and improve traffic flow and safety,” along the four-lane stretch of state highway through the city.
The road serves up to 17,000 vehicles a day, but with the four lanes narrowed to two over the next year anyone who expects to be traveling through the town during rush hour – or hours when school bus traffic is heavy – is encouraged to begin looking for alternate routes.
In addition to being reduced to two lanes from Academic Parkway – at Kentucky Christian University – to the Little Sandy River Bridge, the speed limit will be reduced during construction to 25 mph.
After traffic is rerouted crews from Mountain Enterprises will begin on underlying roadbed repairs at locations along the route. Lane closures will shift along the route as the road is repaved and repainted to mark new travel lanes, beginning on the southbound side of Carol Malone. Traffic will eventually include a single travel lane in each direction, with a center turn lane and left turn lanes at US 60. After the traffic changes are made and new lines are painted, construction will begin on the northbound lane. Work is expected to proceed on the northbound lane into the fall of this year, before shifting to the southbound lane. Work is then expected to proceed on the southbound lane through the summer of next year.
Mountain Enterprises was awarded the contract on the project last fall, after submitting the low-bid of $5,976,248.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
