Wednesday, September 01, 1999
Comments sought on Ky. 16 plans
BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
TAYLOR MILL — Motorists who use one of Northern Kentucky's most heavily traveled roads — Ky. 16 — can offer suggestions for its reconstruction tonightand question state highway officials about alternatives.
The meeting will be 4-7 p.m. today in the Commons Area of Scott High School, 5400 Old Taylor Mill Road in Taylor Mill.
Interested parties can learn about four alternatives for improving Ky. 16, or Taylor Mill Road, and express their opinions about design, access and right of way issues.
“The schedule I have been given is for right of way acquisition to occur in 2002,” said Richard Guidi, district design engineer for the Northern Kentucky office of the Kentucky Department of Highways. “To meet that schedule, we would have to make a decision by the end of the year. But if there's a lot of controversy, it could be several years (before a decision is made).”
Public comment on how each option will affect the overall community will be one of the factors that state highway officials consider in deciding how to improve the narrow, curvy state route.
While no construction date for the Ky. 16 project has been set, Mr. Guidi said he expects that will be addressed in the state's next six-year road plan.
Three of the four alternatives call for converting Ky. 16 to five lanes at different locations, while a fourth calls for converting part of Ky. 16 to a three-lane highway.
The latter alternative recently was endorsed by a majority of respondents in a Taylor Mill survey of the city's 2,238 households.
Three hundred fifty-one residents endorsed the alternative which calls for building a new three-lane road along the existing corridor from south of Hands Pike to Interstate 275, and a four-lane divided highway from south of Hands Pike to the new Ky. 17 to divert traffic from Ky. 16 to Ky. 17.
Under the alternative preferred by respondents in the city survey, the new three-lane highway would consist of a northbound lane, a southbound lane, a turn lane, and a two-foot bicycle lane. The speed limit would be 35 mph, and sidewalks would be built on both sides of the highway.
Taylor Mill City Council has not yet endorsed a route, but will likely do so within a couple of weeks, said City Administrator Jill Cain. “We want to hear what residents have to say, before (council expresses) an opinion,” she said.
A 1993 Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission found that average daily traffic volumes on Ky. 16 had increased more than 83 percent between 1985 and 1992. Also, in 1995, a measure of traffic flow showed it to be “D,” on a scale of “A” through “F,” with “F” equal to gridlock.
The 4.3-mile Ky. 16 corridor from I-275 to Hands Pike has 38 controlled private and public access points (only one of which has a traffic signal) and 139 residential driveways, Taylor Mill officials wrote in a letter sent residents last month.
The numerous points of access and egress have resulted in accidents, city officials said. “The end results are a dangerous road that is heavily burdened and in desperate need of modifications,” the letter said.
While Ky. 16 is a major route for Taylor Mill, the project also would affect Fort Wright, Independence and Covington to varying degrees.
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