Published: November 12, 2008 08:55 pm      

I-66 roadwork to cause dramatic changes

Part of Cumberland Parkway will be permanently closed

A lot of changes will be made to Cumberland Parkway and high-ways just west of Somerset during the next three years.

Cumberland Parkway has been designated as the route of prop-osed Interstate 66. Construction already underway at the top of Fishing Creek hill is the initial stage of the parkway’s eventual evolution into an interstate highway.

The work zone has temporarily reduced Cumberland Parkway east of Fishing Creek bridge to one lane both east and west. Highway Department engineers say traffic will soon be shifted to a two-lane road (existing east-bound lanes) from a point east of Fishing Creek bridge to just west of Tiger’s Way. This will move traffic away from any possible falling rocks while the highway cut is being done for the northern bypass, also a part of I-66.

Road changes will be dramatic just west of Somerset.

When the interstate north of Somerset is completed, east-bound traffic on realigned Cumberland Parkway will con-tinue eastward, bearing slightly to the north, to the interchange with new four-lane U.S. 27 at Pleasant Hill.

“You’ll hardly notice the difference on Cumberland Park-way,” said Bill Chaney, branch manager for project delivery and preservation for the Highway Department’s District 8.

When Cumberland Parkway becomes I-66, drivers will no longer have a straight route from the west into Somerset. The part of Cumberland Parkway from the top of Fishing Creek hill to North Hart Road will be closed permanently and abandoned. This section will no longer be a road; it will be barricaded, explained Tom Clouse, section supervisor for District 8.

To get to Somerset, eastbound traffic will stay on the northern bypass section of Cumberland Parkway to the inter-change with U.S. 27 at Pleasant Hill, south of Science Hill. Then, motorists will travel south on U.S. 27 to Somerset.

Or, traffic may leave Cumberland Parkway at the southwestern bypass interchange and travel about a mile along the southwestern bypass to a new interchange with existing Cumberland Parkway and turn east toward Somerset. Existing Cumberland Parkway from the vicinity of North Hart Road east to Somerset at Traffic Light No. 3 (Ky. 80 bypass) won’t be affected by the changes.

Until the projects are completed, eastbound traffic will still be able to negotiate the two-way stretch of Cumberland Parkway and approach Somerset on the existing parkway. Each of the temporary two lanes will be 12 feet wide, one east and one west.

Chaney said it will be 2011 before all of these road projects are comp-leted. However, the southwestern bypass, from Southwestern High School to Ky. 80 at Saline, probably will open to traffic by the end of the year.

“It may be a little rough,” said Chaney. The final layer of blacktop likely won’t be applied until next summer.

All the aforementioned projects, including bridges to carry Ringgold Road and the southwestern bypass over Cumberland Parkway, are under cont-ract to Hinkle Contracting Corporation. A subcon-tractor is doing grade and drain work on the portion of the northern bypass from Cumberland Park-way to U.S. 27 at Pleasant Hill.

The proposed I-66 will continue easterly from U.S. 27 to Ky. 80 about a mile and a quarter west of Ky. 461. From here, the interstate route has been chosen through Shopville, Stab and Squib to I-75 south of London.