More than 300 attend public meeting on Mountain Parkway

Public asked to comment on expansion options

PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (April 16, 2015) — More than 300 people attended a public meeting Tuesday to offer feedback on two options under consideration for extending the Mountain Parkway from Salyersville to Prestonsburg.

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet representatives presented information on preliminary alternatives to create a four-lane route that would extend the parkway about 14 miles through Magoffin and Floyd counties.

The two options included widening along the existing corridor (KY 114) or building a new road along a cross-country corridor to the north of KY 114.

“Either alternative would provide a safer, quicker route between Salyersville and Prestonsburg,” said Marshall Carrier, a KYTC engineer who is project manager for the Mountain Parkway Expansion. “But we want to make sure we choose the route that best serves Eastern Kentucky over the long haul, and that’s why we wanted to present these preliminary options to the public.”

Preliminary estimates show that 231 properties would be affected by expanding along KY 114, 111 of which would require relocation to complete the project. Current estimates show that a new cross-country corridor would affect 97 properties and require 28 relocations.

The estimated cost to expand along the KY 114 corridor is $249 million, compared with an estimated cost of $256 million to build a new parkway on the cross-country corridor. Should additional funding become available in the future, one of the two preliminary alternates on display at the meeting would be further refined and taken to construction.

KYTC will use the public comments it receives to help determine whether the Mountain Parkway Expansion team should continue to study both preliminary alternatives between Salyersville and Prestonsburg or focus solely on widening along KY 114.

The Mountain Parkway Expansion project will improve a transportation corridor that runs 46 miles between Campton and Prestonsburg. The project will widen 30 miles of the existing parkway from two lanes to four lanes and extend the parkway by about 16 miles, including the expansion of Restaurant Row in Salyersville.

When the entire expansion project is completed in six to 10 years, it will close the only gap in a 400-mile, four-lane, high-speed corridor for commerce and mobility across Kentucky from Pikeville to Paducah.