Two-year project will add interchange, four-lane parkway
SALYERSVILLE, Ky. (Jan. 20, 2015) — Crews are placing road signs this week to prepare for next week’s start of work on the Mountain Parkway Expansion, a highway improvement project designed to bring a wider, safer road to Eastern Kentucky.
Bizzack Construction LLC, of Lexington, was awarded a $19.4 million project last month by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to widen 1.4 miles of the parkway and create an interchange at Gifford Road, which is about five miles west of Salyersville.
Bizzack crews will begin to clear trees and prepare the area for the wider road and new parkway exit. When the new interchange is completed, it will provide direct access to the site for a planned Magoffin County Industrial Park.
The initial construction work should create minimal impacts on traffic. However, motorists should be aware that there will be a reduced speed limit in the work zone, and flag crews might be working in the area.
“This work marks an important step in bringing the Mountain Parkway Expansion to reality,” said Marshall Carrier, a KYTC engineer who is project manager for the Mountain Parkway Expansion. “We are starting our widening project near one of the most traveled sections of the parkway. The new interchange is scheduled to be completed in about two years.”
The Gifford Road interchange project is one of three that are slated to begin this year to the west of Salyersville in what is described as the Magoffin County Central Section. In addition to the work near Gifford Road, projects to make improvements to the KY 7/Salyersville interchange (Exit 75) and the KY 30 interchange (Exit 72) are scheduled to begin this year.
Combined, the three projects will widen 5.7 miles of the parkway to the west of Salyersville.
“This is a busy and vital stretch of the Mountain Parkway,” Carrier added. “Next year, we will start construction in the Restaurant Row section.
Add Comment