Friday, July 23, 1999
Boone lists priorities for road repairs
North Bend Road is No. 1
BY KRISTINA GOETZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Safety won out over congestion in ranking the top three Boone County road projects that will go to the 2000 Kentucky General Assembly.
“Although sometimes traffic backup is heavy at the airport, it's not the safety issue that you have on North Bend Road,” Boone County Judge-executive Gary Moore said Thursday.
Members of the northeast Boone County transportation study committee decided Wednesday night that the top priority is a $20 million project to widen and improve North Bend Road.
The project was chosen for several reasons, said Jeff Walker, a planner with the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments.
Officials want to make sure the road can handle the traffic a proposed housing development and a new school would bring.
“The idea is widening the road to three lanes with a set of turning lanes and straightening out some of the curves,” he said.
“One thing that needs to be stressed is that it's not going to become an expressway.”
The second priority is in two parts. The first part would eliminate the cloverleaf on westbound Interstate 275 to the airport. There would also be a new, direct connection from I-275 to Donaldson Road. The total of this project is about $12 million
“I think there's a good possibility we could get (these) two,” Mr. Moore said.
That's because the monies for the projects come from two different pools. Money for the North Bend Road project would come from the state and funds for the interchanges would come from the federal government.
Before the interchange projects make it to the state's six-year plan, they must go through an interchange justification study, Mr. Walker said.
The third project, which would cost about $31 million, is an airport bypass that would link Zig Zag Road and Mineola Pike.
Officials said both the second and third choices would help with congestion in that area.
The study area is bounded by the Ohio River on the north, the Kenton County line and I-71-75 on the east, Ky. 18 on the south, and Ky. 237 on the west.
Committee members also made a second set of priorities.
The first of those is a $4 million connector from Houston Road to the proposed airport bypass. The second is an extension of Cavalier Boulevard to connect to Houston Road, at a cost of about $11 million. The third is a partial interchange at I-275 and Ky. 20 just west of the airport. The cost for that project is estimated at $4 million.
“They're all important, but we know we can't fund them all,” Mr. Walker said.
The committee will hold another public meeting Aug. 11 at the county extension office to present the priorities to the public and gather comments one last time.
The OKI board of directors will then vote to put the projects on its transportation improvement plan, and then they're off to the state.
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