?The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is in the design phase of a project to improve traffic flow at the Interstate 65/KY 480 interchange in Bullitt County. This project will improve access to existing and committed businesses in the Cedar Grove Business Park and surrounding area. The project team reviewed several interchange types and have reduced the options to 2 alternatives.

 

The first alternate is a Double Crossover Diamond (DCD) interchange. The concept of a DCD interchange is to allow the two directions of traffic on the crossroad to temporarily divide and cross to the opposite side to gain access to and from the freeway more easily. A DCD features two-phase traffic signals that typically allow more traffic to flow through the interchange, and fewer conflict points contribute to a reduced number of crashes.

 

The second alternate is a hybrid of the Texas U-Turn interchange. The Texas U-Turn interchange designs are frequently used on freeways flanked by one-way frontage roads. At freeway interchanges, exiting ramp traffic that desires to access the frontage road on the opposite side of the freeway is routed under the bridge without crossing the opposing traffic on the crossroad - essentially a U-turn movement positioned tight against the bridge abutment. This type of design eliminates several traffic conflict points common with more traditional interchange designs. For the KY 480 interchange, the normal Texas U-Turn design is modified to address the heavy southbound to eastbound ramp movement.

 

A public meeting was held on Thursday, June 2, 2016 to present this information to area residents and motorists. Approximately 150 people attended this meeting at the Paroquet Springs Conference Centre in Shepherdsville.

 

Videos of the traffic simulations shown at the public meeting can be found on the Transportation Cabinet's YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/KYTCDistrict5 .