Transportation Cabinet official Tim Henderlight set up a desk in a highway work zone in Breathitt County Friday to make his point as he discussed the need for driving safely in construction zones. Henderlight held a news conference to discuss work zone safety in Eastern Kentucky at the site of a $37 million construction project to relocate KY 15 and widen it to four lanes. Photo by H.B. Elkins, District 10 PIO.

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From the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet:

State and local officials broke ground at Vancleve Tuesday, March 29 on a $36.5 million highway construction project in Breathitt County. A new 3.5-mile section of KY 15 will be four-laned and improved to bypass a dangerous section of highway where five people have been killed and 35 injured in 55 wrecks over the last two years. The project is part of an overall plan to improve KY 15 in Breathitt and Perry counties. Upwards of 30,000 vehicles use portions of this road daily.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has awarded a contract for construction of 3.4 mile section of KY 15 between Jackson and Campton: Kentucky Transportation Cabinet: Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Awards Contract for Reconstruction of Kentucky 15 (Jan. 18, 2005) 

When the 2004 Recommended Six-Year Highway Plan was released Transportation Cabinet Secretary Maxwell Clay Bailey assured legislators that no projects had been removed the 2002 Six-Year Plan; however, the Courier-Journal has found that fifteen projects scheduled under the 2002 plan were moved to the unscheduled needs list in the new 2004 plan.

More information: Courier-Journal: 15 projects cut from road plan (March 3, 2004) , WKYT: 15 Kentucky Road Projects Cut Due To Budget Crisis (March 4, 2004) , Hardin County News Enterprise: State drops I-65 widening (March 5, 2004) 

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