The Leitchfield City Council has agreed to allow Mayor William Thomason to apply for a grant for the William Thomason Byway Extension Project.
At Monday night’s meeting, the resolution related to the project was presented and read by City Attorney Kenneth Smart. It says in part:
“… the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Transportation Cabinet Department of Highways intends to extend the southern terminus of the William Thomason Byway (Hwy 3155) … from KY 259 southwest to KY 54 (about 2 miles).”
The city will now submit a Federal Discretionary “Better Utilizing Investments for Leveraging Development” application for the project.
State Senator Steve Meredith, who was in attendance, said the project has “nine lives,”partially due to it, originally, not being on a list of 32 projects statewide under consideration by state government (of those 32, only eight are approved). A re-evaluation of the benefits of the byway extension, though, swayed lawmakers to give greater credence to the project’s importance to the community.
Sen. Meredith said LaRue County Judge Executive Tommy Turner went so far as to allow a project in his county to be delayed so the byway extension project could move forward immediately to the next phase.
The project will cost in the neighborhood of $20 million to $23 million, and will ideally improve traffic flow along the increasingly busy Hwy 54 corridor, and ease traffic on the byway from South Main Street to Brandenburg Road.
Sen. Meredith said the city should know in December if a grant will be awarded for the project.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com or 270-259-6000
