Eastern Kentucky Rural Improvements Impetus?

[Rothman]

After HB brought up his mistaking me for being older than I am in another thread, I spent some time on Google Maps going around the areas in Kentucky with which I was most familiar.  Found some things that I knew about and then others that I did not, keeping in mind my last trip to the region was in 2015:

1) Progress on the new Minnie to Harold section of KY 680
2) Various improvements along KY 122:  Finally dealing with the Mead Hill curve and some other impressive straightening work (but not across Abner Mountain yet, if ever )
3) Of course, the improvements to the end of the Mountain Parkway and the future realignment of US 460.

So, what caused KYTC to invest in the area like this?  The KY 122 straightening efforts are especially strange to me, given the rail lines to the mines have long since been ripped up (the tipple near Price long defunct; used to love seeing it in operation) and the projects must be relatively expensive, especially the "new" bridge just south of South Floyd Elementary.  I am not seeing much reason for increased travel demand in the area, when there was more reason to do these improvements when the coal trucks were running.  Why would KYTC invest this much money in this area and not elsewhere?  Perhaps some sort of geographic "fairness" equation when it comes to divvying out their capital program funding?

[Beltway]

Have you checked the populations of the various counties?  Appalachian counties often have a lot more population than average rural counties around the country.

[Rothman]

Have you checked the populations of the various counties?  Appalachian counties often have a lot more population than average rural counties around the country.

Even so, the improvements that most raise my eyebrows are in areas that are not the centers of these counties, but off the beaten path areas that are probably losing population due to closures of the local coal mines.

[Rothman]

An interesting aside is that a common perception, even locally, is that "downtown" Prestonsburg was hurt by the US 23/US 460 bypass, but its population has held surprisingly steady.

[Beltway]

Have you checked the populations of the various counties?  Appalachian counties often have a lot more population than average rural counties around the country.

Even so, the improvements that most raise my eyebrows are in areas that are not the centers of these counties, but off the beaten path areas that are probably losing population due to closures of the local coal mines.

Still may have elevated traffic volumes due to the general population size of the county, would need to look at each case.

The future realignment of US 460 is part of the long-delayed ADHS Corridor Q that was authorized back in 1965.

[SP Cook]

The population point is a good one.  Even with the massive declines, coal producing counties still have vastly more population than a place with similar topography that has no coal.  W/O coal, this sort of topography yields marginal farmers, timber, and the very occasional standalone small workshop or factory. 

Another point, IMHO, is topography.  All the mountains in the way mean that more roads are needed.  Say you want to go N-S and are in a flatter place.  One good N-S road can serve people living many miles E-W of it, but in the mountains the amount of people served by one particular road is far less.

But, IMHO, the reason for increased spending is twofold.

- One, is politics.  For longer than I have been alive, coalfield Appalachians voted reflexively and without thought a straight ticket for one political party, regardless of its positions on any issue of importance at that time.  I never thought that would change.  I was wrong.  Today, the coalfields voters have, not just in Kentucky but also West Virginia and Virginia, become "apex predator" voters.  Thoughtfully judging the issues and the parties and candidates and choosing accordingly.  And?  Well if I am a politician and I KNOW I will get 85 to 90% of the vote in a place like Pike County, why would I do a darn thing for Pike County?  They are going to vote for me anyway.  Now, politicians must work and deliver to get things.

- The second is economic panic.  Fact is, both parties lack the courage to say the truth.  Fact is the topography discussed above is destiny.  But politicians, of both parties, believe that spending, on roads and on other things, can "diversify the economy".  Well, if that were true, then places with this topography, but no coal, would already have this diverse economy.  But they don't, the land supports far fewer people and thus has far fewer people.  But saying that is political suicide for either party, so we end up with lots of lightly travelled roads, along with other lightly used infastructure projects, unsold industrial park lots, harebrained development schemes, and so on.

[Beltway]

Another point, IMHO, is topography.  All the mountains in the way mean that more roads are needed.  Say you want to go N-S and are in a flatter place.  One good N-S road can serve people living many miles E-W of it, but in the mountains the amount of people served by one particular road is far less.

Access and mobility is the main justification for highway improvements in rural and small town areas, while in major metros the main justification is congestion relief.

Mountainous regions historically had major problems with highway access and mobility, due to the terrain itself, and the cost and complexity of building modern highways, and this is not just a need for 4-lane arterial highways but also there are needs for modern 2-lane primary and secondary highways.

That is why ADHS was created in 1965, and not just for economic reasons but also for access and mobiity.

[hbelkins]

Interesting that you'd mention this. I went to Pikeville for work today and happened to come back via KY 680 and KY 80 to Hazard.

The Minnie-to-Harold connector will cut travel times between Hazard and Pikeville, the two biggest towns in that part of the state. There's just a small section that hasn't been finished yet; I actually drove up the officially unopened portion (officially, it's supplanted a couple of county roads so local traffic has to use it) and the newest portion from Minnie extending toward Harold has a fresh coat of blacktop.

Although I-66 is still on the books, a direct four-lane between Hazard and Pikeville will never be built and KY 680 will save a good chunk of time and mileage over existing KY 80 to US 23.

I'm not sure about the spot improvements on 122, but there is a project going on now to cut into the hill at the existing 122/680 intersection at McDowell. I suspect most of those may be HSIP projects, or possibly rockfall mitigation/slide abatement projects.

The Mountain Parkway project was envisioned to complete a four-lane highway from one end of the state to the other, literally Pikeville to Paducah (our version of Murphy to Manteo). Never mind that a lot of county seats would like to have a road connecting them as good as the "super-2" section of the Mountain Parkway.

Something else of note: US 119 in Kentucky between Pineville and Pikeville (Appalachian Corridor "mumble") will never be completed. Basically all that's left is the Pine Mountain crossing, and a tunnel was the preferred option for that. Spot improvements were made to existing 119 across the mountain about 15 years ago and that's now deemed sufficient. So the APD system is going to have a choke point of 15 and 25 mph curves across a mountain between the improved sections of 119 on the south and north sides.

[Rothman]

Yeah, I drove that section of US 119 in 2015.  It is strange the way it abruptly becomes a two-lane slog up and over the mountain.  I will be going back to visit Kingdom Come State Park someday, though.

[The Ghostbuster]

I don't know whether this would count as a "Rural Improvement Impetus", but does the proposed extension of the Bert Combs Mountain Parkway have a construction date yet? I also heard it would become a toll road again.

[wriddle082]

I don't know whether this would count as a "Rural Improvement Impetus", but does the proposed extension of the Bert Combs Mountain Parkway have a construction date yet? I also heard it would become a toll road again.

I don't think tolls will be reinstated on any of the Mountain Parkway.  The extension you speak of actually exists as KY 114, but it is an improved two-lane highway that will be widened to four lanes (non-freeway).  HB can correct me if I'm wrong on any of those points.

Also, I have often wondered about the four lane routes leading into Martin County/Inez from US 23: KY 645 and relocated KY 3.  Were these originally funded from KY's general road fund to provide this area with four-lane connections?  Or did coal companies play a part?  I don't believe either of these are offshoots of ARC corridors.  And here's a fun fact that I recall from childhood: the KY 645 four-lane was completed several years before US 23 was widened between Paintsville and Louisa.  So for a period of time in the 80's, KY 645 was an orphan four-lane that only connected to two lane highways at both ends.

[hbelkins]

I don't know whether this would count as a "Rural Improvement Impetus", but does the proposed extension of the Bert Combs Mountain Parkway have a construction date yet? I also heard it would become a toll road again.

I don't think tolls will be reinstated on any of the Mountain Parkway.  The extension you speak of actually exists as KY 114, but it is an improved two-lane highway that will be widened to four lanes (non-freeway).  HB can correct me if I'm wrong on any of those points.

Also, I have often wondered about the four lane routes leading into Martin County/Inez from US 23: KY 645 and relocated KY 3.  Were these originally funded from KY's general road fund to provide this area with four-lane connections?  Or did coal companies play a part?  I don't believe either of these are offshoots of ARC corridors.  And here's a fun fact that I recall from childhood: the KY 645 four-lane was completed several years before US 23 was widened between Paintsville and Louisa.  So for a period of time in the 80's, KY 645 was an orphan four-lane that only connected to two lane highways at both ends.

Re-tollling the Mountain Parkway was briefly floated when the widening was proposed, but public outcry over re-tollilng the route shot that idea down.

Keep in mind, four-laning the Mountain Parkway has been a pie-in-the-sky promise for many years. Three miles in Wolfe County were widened starting in 2007 as a design-build project, but nothing happened after that. Then they jump-started the idea and the widening is being done in segments. The first section to open was in Magoffin County and included a new interchange to provide access to an industrial park. Two segments to the east of that have been completed. a realignment near the KY 30 exit, and widening and reconstruction of the KY 7 exit. US 460 through Salyersville is currently being widened to four lanes and that project is supposed to be finished late this year.

There's one segment under construction now. It extends from the KY 205 exit in Wolfe County east through the southern tip of Morgan County and into Magoffin County. It included a new, full intechange to replace what is now a partial exit for Exit 60. Much of the route is just adding parallel lanes, but there's a segment of it that is complete relocation due to an S-curve at the Morgan/Magoffin line that's been the site of several fatal wrecks over the years.

That leaves two segments. One, from the east end of the current construction to the beginning of the new four-lane, is supposed to go to bid later this year. The other is from Exit 46 to Exit 57 in Wolfe County. There's no construction timetable for this yet, as it is the least-traveled portion of the Mountain Parkway.

The extension of the route from the US 460/KY 114 intersection east of Salyersville to Floyd County has two current options. One would involve a new-terrain freeway running to the north of the existing KY 114 and tying into KY 114 where part of the route was four-laned about 20 years ago. The other option is to widen existing KY 114. The former would cost more for construction, but less for ROW and utility relocation. The latter has lower construction costs, but ROW and utilities would be more. There is also considerable concern that Floyd County does not have enough existing housing to absorb all those who would be displaced if the existing route is widened.

In addition, there has been some sentiment expressed recently to widen US 460 to Paintsville instead of KY 114 to Prestonsburg. We'll see how that plays out.

Regarding KY 645 and KY 3, there was a special resource recovery fund that Kentucky established back in the 1970s and 80s to build that corridor, and those funds were also used on the four-laning of KY 80 between Hazard and US 23. That route came in handy for awhile, as some rather restrictive weight limits were placed on one of the US 23 bridges between the Floyd/Johnson line and Paintsville, so heavy trucks had to detour. KY 3 is still an orphan four-lane route. The four-lane ends at KY 321 (old US 23) and the route continues as a concurrency to a point where a new connector was built between the old and new US 23 alignments. For awhile, this connector was signed US 23/460 but when the four-lane was completed to Paintsville, KY 3 was routed over it.

[Rothman]

I remember when KY 3 was routed down past Jenny Wiley to US 23/US 460/KY 80.  Jolted me when they put up the KY 302 signage.

[hbelkins]

I remember when KY 3 was routed down past Jenny Wiley to US 23/US 460/KY 80.  Jolted me when they put up the KY 302 signage.

I'm pretty sure they changed that before the four-lane KY 3 was built, and they routed KY 3 to intersect what is now KY 321 near Auxier. Then when the four-lane was built, they moved it up to that spot.