Published: June 17, 2009 08:03 pm      

Finishing touches being put on new stretch of U.S. 27 near Eubank

The final coat of base blacktop is being applied this week to one of the southbound lanes of new U.S. 27 between Ky. 452 (Bull Road) and Ky. 70 at Eubank. Another inch of blacktop will be a finishing surface.

Bill Chaney, branch manager for project delivery and preservation for the Highway Department's District 8, said construction of the final contract section of four-lane U.S. 27 is on track to be completed late this summer or fall.

Three contract sections of four-lane U.S. 27 are already done and traffic is on the new roadway from northern Somerset to Ky. 452. It’s two-way traffic on recently constructed northbound lanes between Ky. 452 and Ky. 70 while existing lanes of old U.S. 27 are being transformed into two southbound lanes.

Chaney said southbound traffic, now on one of two northbound lanes, will eventually be shifted to one of the southbound lanes of the new highway while the adjacent southbound lane is created.

Total cost of the 13.5 miles of four-lane U.S. 27 between Somerset and Eubank, including an I-66 interchange, is $73,038,792.33. Hinkle Contracting Corporation, Somerset and Paris, built all of new U.S. 27 except the initial contract section between Somerset and Science Hill. Bizzack Inc., Lexington, built the first section which opened in August 2007. The interchange, located two miles north of Somerset, was built by Bizzack, and awaits completion of I-66.

The I-66 interchange with U.S. 27 is part of what will be a northern bypass of Somerset. A realigned Cumberland Parkway, corridor for I-66, will veer slightly northward at Fishing Creek and intersect with four-lane U.S. 27 at the already constructed interchange. The parkway’s new route will result in a controversial closing of a half mile of the existing parkway and creation of a Somerset exit at the interchange with southwestern bypass.

Most of the right-of-way has already been purchased to extend I-66 (northern bypass) easterly from the U.S. 27 interchange to a planned interchange with Ky. 39. Right-of-way purchases are just getting under way in the corridor of the planned I-66 from Ky. 39 to Ky. 80 at Barnesburg. From there, a corridor has been selected for I-66 through Shopville, Stab and Squib to I-75 at the weigh station south of London.

U.S. 27 and the northern bypass (I-66) are just part of more than $190 million worth of new highways in Pulaski County.

New Ky. 1247, extending from Ky. 914 (southeastern bypass) at Murphy Avenue Extension to near the recently opened interchange of U.S. 27 and Ky. 90 in northern Burnside, is scheduled to open late in the current construction season. Four-lane Ky. 1247 will bypass an existing narrow, crooked Ky. 1247 that dips sharply to Pitman Creek south of Elihu; climbs upward through Cedar Grove; then north of John Sherman Cooper Power Station to U.S. 27 in northern Burnside.

On the other side of town, the final contract section of southwestern bypass, from Ky. 80 to Cumberland Parkway, won’t be completed until early next year, Chaney noted. This timetable also applies to the section of the northern bypass between Cumberland Parkway and new U.S. 27. Hinkle is general contractor for both projects.