District 1 of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is one of the largest, and most challenging, regions to administer and navigate.
With more than 2,800 miles of road and 1,900 bridges throughout 12 counties, its operating budget of $22-to-$26 million and 233 employees are tasked with repair, maintenance and construction of west Kentucky’s prime infrastructure — while answering the calls of things like natural disasters and the relief efforts.
During a recent comprehensive update with the Cadiz Rotary Club, KYTC District 1 Chief Engineer Kyle Poat offered a snapshot of “what’s next” for the area — including small projects inside Cadiz, to the large projects like completing the I-69 corridor and connecting Kentucky and Indiana with a new bridge.
Of note, Poat said the connection between KY 124 and KY 139 in Cadiz, better known as “Wilson’s Corner,” will have its skew removed within the next calendar year, and be reconstructed into a more 90-degree angle.
Over the last two decades, bridges have been a major focus for KYTC District 1, including LBL, the Ledbetter Bridge, the Brookport Bridge and others. Poat said the Cairo Bridge along US 51 has a project tag for 2025-26, while the region’s Smithland Bridge could be finished by this Christmas.
A more regional project of considerable interest to west Kentuckians, and approaching funding needs, is the highly-likely upgrade of North Friendship Road (1286) in Paducah and McCracken County. Poat said this two-lane road has consistently been receiving between 15,000 and 17,000 cars per day in the last handful of years, as the population expands to northern Graves County and southern Paducah.
This runs from the Dairyette in Lone Oak to the Huck’s/Kohl’s/Chick-Fil-A, and Poat said it meets early qualifications for federal support.
Updated through odd years and enacted through the even ones, Poat said the state’s six-year road plan stays as a living, breathing document, in which local and regional authorities relay specific needs to the KYTC.
A project of “high” priority right now remains to be the I-69 conversion from the Kentucky-Tennessee state line in Fulton/Union City to the Kentucky-Indiana state line through Henderson/Evansville.
But roads aren’t even KYTC’s only concerns at this time.
Two cataclysmic natural disasters, the December tornadoes in the west and the floods of the east, have only brought the state’s highway crews more challenges, and Poat has personally taken on the role of the travel trailer mission in Districts 1, 2 and 3.
Three months ago, Poat said more than 125 of the state’s 200 purchased travel trailers were being used by families across west Kentucky. That’s down to 75, but following the flood, he’s twice been in east Kentucky to shift trailers to that area.
He just recently returned from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, too, where Commonwealth’s officials were trying to decide whether to buy another 100 to 300 trailers to assist families rehome in Appalachia.
With the General Assembly likely to soon meet in special session, Poat said it hasn’t been indicated to him that some of the state’s projects will be not be slowed — as other monies will be shifted eastern Kentucky’s way.
Poat was named the Kentucky Association of Transportation Engineers “Engineer of the Year” this past spring.
