Contractors expect to start blasting next week along the AA Highway (KY 9) north of Maysville – the first major step in an $18 million Transportation Cabinet project to add another 5 miles of four-lane capacity to the Alexandria to Ashland corridor.
Work began earlier this year with right-of-way clearing and continuing utility relocations on the AA Highway widening project from US 68 (Heather French Henry Highway) at Maysville to just north of KY 435 at Fernleaf.
Construction will continue throughout the year, and into 2017, with heavy road-building activities ramping up this spring and summer.
While two-way traffic will be maintained during all construction, the speed limit will be limited to 45 miles per hour in the work zone to protect workers as they build new travel lanes adjacent to existing ones. In addition, motorists should watch for occasional flagged traffic and other impacts:
– Beginning the week of April 4, expect daily blasting through September. Each blast will require all AA Highway traffic to stop for 5 to 10 minutes. No blasting will occur before 8:30 a.m. or after 3 p.m. Motorists are advised to watch signs and message boards, and obey flaggers.
– Trucks and heavy equipment will be entering and leaving the AA Highway throughout the project, especially after roadway excavation and drainage pipe work starts the week of April 18. Intermittent flagged traffic is likely.
– Detours for KY 435 traffic where it intersects the AA Highway are likely in mid-April and by May 2 when paving starts on the new intersection. Some work will occur at night.
Paving and earth work will increase in June, with 24-hour construction operations expected through the summer. Motorists should slow down, and travel with caution at all times in work zones.
The project, which has been in the utility relocation phase for the last two years, includes earth work and road-building to widen the AA Highway, new right-of-way fencing, enhanced state highway intersections at KY 10 and KY 435 and other upgrades.
That project is being done by Eaton Asphalt Paving Company Inc. under a Transportation Cabinet contract.
From KYTC