Safety improvement plans announced for U.S. 68/KY 139 intersection at Cadiz

PADUCAH, Ky. (Feb. 3, 2020) The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has announced plans for safety improvements at the U.S. 68/KY 139 intersection in Trigg County.

At the Trigg County Fiscal Court this evening, KYTC District 1 Chief Engineer Kyle Poat shared plans for the construction of an R-Cut intersection at the site, sometimes referred to as a J-Turn.

“The existing intersection is fairly new and has good visibility of oncoming traffic. However, we’ve had several crashes where vehicles traveling KY 139/South Road have pulled in front of oncoming traffic on this 4-lane section of U.S. 68,” Poat said. “Due to the severity of those crashes, we have initiated design plans to convert this intersection to an R-Cut crossing.”

Poat said engineers explored several safety improvement options for the intersection. The R-cut design was determined to be the most-effective way to curb crashes. The R-Cut design is similar to crossings being planned at intersections along U.S. 45 in southern McCracken County and northern Graves County.

An R-Cut requires through traffic on side roads to make a right turn, then use a median turn lane to make what is essentially a controlled U-turn before turning right to travel through the intersection. While the R-Cut design adds a few extra seconds of travel time, it cuts the number of traffic conflict points in half and helps drivers to divide their decision-making process into several smaller bites to improve safety. Studies of existing R-Cut installations show crash reductions of up to 54 percent.

During the project development process, the design team reviewed 15 years of crash data for the site prior to the most recent fatality crash. Including that period, the U.S. 68/KY 139 intersection just south of Cadiz has had 32 police-reported crashes that included 4 fatalities, 11 injuries, and 19 crashes with property damage.

Poat noted the R-Cut intersections have almost no impact on through-traffic volume. While the R-Cut is a new traffic safety feature along Kentucky highways, it has been widely used by other state highway agencies to enhance intersection safety .

Approximately 6,200 vehicles travel through the U.S. 68/KY 139 intersection in an average day.

The U.S. 68/KY 139 intersection is at Trigg County mile point 18.375 and KY 139 mile point 15.285 at the south edge of Cadiz.

Poat said while some additional design work will be required, he anticipates negotiating the addition of the R-Cut to the ongoing design-build construction project along U.S. 68 between Cadiz and Canton. Work is expected to begin sometime this summer and would likely be completed within two to three months.

For information on how an R-Cut works go to www.US45Safety.org.