The public meeting to discuss the potential widening of a portion of Fairview Drive has been rescheduled for Thursday. It will be held at Highland Elementary School located at (2909 KY 54).
Public input is being sought on preliminary designs regarding the potential widening of Fairview Drive from Settles Road to KY 54, including the addition of sidewalks along much of the roadway. A major part of the proposal includes adding a center turn lane extending from KY 54 to just south of the Adkisson Greenbelt.
The public can review and comment on the proposed alternates and make comments via this survey. Participants will have until Oct. 7 to submit their comments.
KYTC officials previously said they are only in the preliminary design stage of this project and a preferred alternative has not yet been selected. No build remains an option.
Renee Boucherie, design supervisor for KYTC District 2, is the project manager for the Fairview Drive proposal.
She discussed the images above, saying Alternate A shows an equal widening, “so it’s taking the center line and extending on each side evenly.” Alternate B is a variable widening, so “it kind of weaves depending on what’s out there to try to minimize some of the impacts.”
Boucherie said KYTC really looked at keeping the portion of Fairview Drive south of the Greenbelt crossing as a two-lane and adding in any turn lanes as needed. They are looking at a three-lane north of the Greenbelt crossing — meaning one lane of traffic going each direction with a center turn lane.
“We did look at doing like a three-lane south of the Greenbelt, and we also looked at extending to a five-lane — so two lanes on each side with the center turn lane — north of the greenbelt,” Boucherie said. “However, we found that our traffic numbers just didn’t warrant that.”
The images also show light gray sections that depict sidewalks and multi-use paths adjacent to the roadway.
The shorter dashed lines indicate disturb limits, while the thicker dashed lines are the proposed right of way limits.
The proposal also depicts the project as four sections. Boucherie said they can make decisions section by section rather than having to take an all-or-nothing approach.
After KYTC meets with the public and gets feedback, Boucherie said they’ll move into the next phase of design if there is support for widening any section.
However, it will likely be several years before any construction could begin. Boucherie said there is currently only enough funding for the design phase and the right of way phase — which is where they go to the property owners and purchase the land necessary to construct the project.
Persons with disabilities who wish to attend the meeting but have special accessibility needs that require assistance should contact Keirsten Jaggers at the Department of Highways District 2 office in Madisonville at 270-339-2787 to request special assistance.
For questions, those interested can also call Boucheire at 270-339-3313.
