Published: November 29, 2008 06:46 pm            

Opening soon

Bypass closer to encircling Somerset

OAK HILL — “We will have traffic on it before Christmas.”

Bill Chaney, branch manager for project delivery and preservation for the Highway Department’s District 8, made the promise to motorists in the Oak Hill area and anyone else who will use the southwestern bypass.

The section of roadway to which Chaney refers is from Southwestern High School north to Ky. 80 at Saline. The new part of the road will join Ky. 80 just east of Saline Baptist Church and Dollar General Store.

The southern section of southwestern bypass from U.S. 27 at Beacon Hill Baptist Church to an intersection with Oak Hill Road opened to traffic last December. Later this past summer, traffic was allowed to use the road to the entrance of Southwestern High School.

Chaney said this week that he doesn’t have an exact date when the next section of southwestern bypass will be opened to traffic.

“Basically, it depends on the weather,” said Chaney. The driving lanes –– two south and two north –– are complete on the new section and Hinkle Contracting Corporation is now paving the shoulders.

Because of cold weather, the final coating of blacktop won’t be added to the new section of southwestern bypass until next summer.

“It (the surface) will be a little rough ... but usable,” said Chaney. Motorists who want to avoid more than 20 traffic signals on U.S. 27 through the business district of Somerset can use the southwestern bypass when the section opens to Saline. There will be a short driving distance on Ky. 80 to the Cumberland Parkway, or the bypass, but probably can be negotiated more quickly and with less frustration than waiting at traffic signals.

The southwestern bypass is an extension of Ky. 914 (southeastern bypass) that extends from Ky. 80 east of Somerset to four-lane U.S. 27 at Beacon Hill Baptist Church. The southwestern bypass, also designated Ky. 914, picks up at Beacon Hill Baptist Church and extends through the Oak Hill community. The soon-to-be finished part will take motorists to West Ky. 80 at Saline. Eventually, the southwestern bypass will extend to a realigned Cumberland Parkway and become a feeder road into Somerset. Cumberland Parkway is the designated route for Interstate 66 and will serve as a northern bypass of Somerset, joining four-lane U.S. 27 at the interchange in Pleasant Hill, south of Science Hill.

        

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