By Dean Manning
Work has begun on a traffic light at KY 192 and the Hal Rogers Parkway, a little more than a month after transportation officials approved its installation.
Workers with Davis H. Elliott Contractors out of Lexington started the process Wednesday of constructing the forms for the concrete pads that will hold the utility poles to which the wires for the traffic lights will be attached.
Jonathan Dobson, public affairs officer for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet office in Manchester, said the work will be completed in the next three to four weeks. Following that, the lights will be set to “flash” mode for several days to allow motorist the opportunity to become familiar with the lights.
Laurel County Clerk Dean Johnson owns property adjacent to the corner, and said he has seen several wrecks and close calls first-hand. He was one of the people who helped collect petitions to the transportation cabinet for the installation of the lights.
“I think it is long overdue,” Johnson said. “The amount of traffic in that area is continuing to increase.”
The move to have the light installed was prompted by a series of fatal wrecks at the intersection, the most recent of which occurred in January when Aaron Snider’s Lincoln Continental was broadsided by a semi-trailer as he attempted to turn left from KY 192 onto the parkway.
“Thank God,” said Debbie Snider, Aaron’s mother, when she learned of the state’s decision to install the traffic light. “Maybe another mother won’t have to go through what I had to go through, losing my baby.”
Working with his counterparts in Clay and Jackson counties, Johnson began circulating a petition in January, asking the transportation cabinet to study the intersection to determine if a traffic light was warranted. The petition contained more than 2,200 signatures.
About two weeks after Laurel County Judge-Executive Lawrence Kuhl presented the petition to Secretary of Transportation Joe Prather, transportation officials from the Manchester office began the study by counting the number of vehicles that pass through the intersection.
Tom Napier, district engineer with the Transportation Cabinet Office in Manchester, said the initial work of installing the poles for the lights will begin in the coming weeks and the lights will be installed and operating in the next two to three months.
Napier said a petition for an access road to the parkway across from KY 192 will determine the configuration of the traffic lanes through the intersection. If the permit is approved, it will require traffic coming across the parkway from Manchester to stop. If the permit is denied, the intersection could be configured to allow that traffic to continue straight through.
Dobson said the decision on the access has not been made. However, the poles are being positioned to accommodate either decision. The project has an estimated cost of $50,000.
Staff writer Dean Manning may be reached at dmanning@sentinel-echo.com.
