County lobbying state to add fully paved shoulders to new section of US31E

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Patty Dunaway, chief engineer for the Transportation Cabinet’s District 4 office in Elizabethtown, discusses the proposed plans for Rural Secondary Roads paving projects in Nelson County.

Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015, 1:30 p.m. — The safety of the new portion of US31E from Whitesides Road to the Salt River bridge surfaced Tuesday at Nelson Fiscal Court during a discussion of proposed road improvements by the Kentucky Department of Transportation.

Judge Executive Dean Watts and fiscal court are lobbying the state to fund paving the full 10-foot width of the shoulders of the new section of US31E. Currently, the road is designed — and unless changed, will be built — with 10-foot shoulders with 4 feet of that paved and the remaining 6-feet in grass.

The problem is that the 4-feet of paved shoulder is too narrow for a vehicle to safely pull over and not still be in the traffic lanes. The new portion of US31E north of KY 509 in Cox’s Creek features the same shoulder design — and has prompted numerous complaints to state officials.

Magistrate Bernard Ice said that building new roads without fully paved shoulders is the same as building roads that are immediately obsolete.

Magistrate Bernard Ice traveled US31E for years, and said that it made no sense to build the new road with shoulders that aren’t useable.

“Its disappointing to go to Marion County, Washington County and Hardin County and you get good shoulders, but in Nelson County you get obsolete roads,” Ice told the court.

Patty Dunaway, the transportation cabinet’s chief engineer in District 4, took exception to Ice’s comments, injecting “That’s not true.”

Other roads elsewhere in the district feature the same design with 4-foot paved shoulders, including KY313 that will eventually run from I-65 to Brandenburg.  The entire 10-foot shoulder width — paved and grass — offers plenty of recovery area, she said. “Obsolete is a very strong word, Mr. Ice.”

Dunaway said she preferred the fully paved shoulders, but the roads are designed with best practices in mind.

Fifth District Magistrate Jerry Hahn looks over handouts during Tuesday’s Nelson Fiscal Court meeting.

Ice explained that the wider shoulder allows room for tractor-trailer trucks to pull over and out of the traffic lanes, and gives a place for passenger cars to pull over for a phone call or a text. Jim Lemieux, the county road engineer, agreed that paving four feet of the 10-foot shoulder doesn’t offer the same margin of safety.

Watts said upgrading the shoulder design of the new section is tied to funding — and the General Assembly’s action on stabilizing gas tax revenue will play a part on the state decision to upgrade the shoulder design.

After the meeting, Ice told the Nelson County Gazette he still believes that new state roads built without a fully paved shoulder are indeed obsolete.

SECONDARY ROAD RECOMMENDATIONS. Dunaway and her staff attended the meeting to discuss with fiscal court their recommendations for the improvements on state roads in the county as part of the state’s Rural Secondary Road program.

The court approved the recommendation to:

– repave 3.31 miles of KY 162, the Old Bloomfield Road, from its intersection with Bloomfield Road to its intersection with Irish Ridge Road;

– repave 2.26 miles of KY 46, Balltown Road, from its intersection Burba Road to its intersection with KY 49, Loretto Road;

– repave 6.951 miles of KY 46, Nat Rogers Road, from its intersection with KY 52, Nelsonville Road to its intersection with US31E, New Haven Road.

– repave 1.43 miles of KY 1754, Old Willisburg Road in Chaplin from the Washington County line to its intersection with KY 458, Old Tunnel Mill Road.

The program included the expenditure of $692,600 on routine road maintenance on the state roads in Nelson County. Judge Executive Dean Watts said that the county has the right to redirect approximately $156,000 for a county road project if necessary, and Watts said he wished to keep that option open until the gas tax question is settled.

GRADER BID. The court approved a bid from Whayne Supply of $178,275 for a used 2012 CAT 120M2 road grader. The grader will replace an existing one used by the county road department. According to Whayne Supply representative Jim Whittis, the grader was purchased new and had been a rental unit.

EMS RATE INCREASE. The court approved a request from EMS Director Joe Prewitt to raise its rates, the first adjustment since 2011.

For comparison purposes, Prewitt offered a chart showing the current five levels of service EMS offers, and the rates charged for those same services by EMS services in 11 nearby counties in Central Kentucky.

APPOINTMENTS. The court also approved appointing Sidney Shouse, Mary Spalding, Amelia Clements and Kelly Harrison to the Bardstown-Nelson County Human Rights Commission, and the appointment of Magistrate Keith Metcalfe, Lisa Nowaskie and John Cecil to the Bardstown-Nelson County Recreation Advisory Board.

SURPLUS VEHICLE AUCTION. Watts told the court the recent auction of surplus county-owned vehicles netted $5,000. He said another auction will be scheduled when additional surplus vehicles become available.

NEXT UP. Nelson Fiscal Court will next meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17 in the Fiscal Court meeting room on the second floor of the Old Courthouse.

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