PADUCAH, Ky. (July 29, 2020) — A contractor for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet plans to establish a work zone at the intersection of U.S. 68 and KY 139 at the south edge of Cadiz starting on Thursday, July 29, 2020.
This work zone is to allow construction of an R-Cut at the intersection, sometimes referred to as a J-Turn. This safety project will initially start with work zone signage and pavement markings on Thursday. On Friday, July 31, the contractor will add a traffic shift to establish two-way traffic on U.S. 68 in the work zone.
This traffic shift is to facilitate the construction of curbing, drainage features, and the controlled U-turn cross overs along U.S. 68 for each end of the R-Cut.
Construction of the new safety feature is expected to take about 12 weeks to complete.
Rogers Group is the prime contractor on this $1,213,738 highway safety project. The target completion date is October 30, 2020.
KYTC District 1 engineers met with the Trigg County Fiscal Court in February to provide an outline of efforts to enhance safety at the intersection. The R-cut design was determined to be the most-effective way to curb crashes.
During the project development process, the design team reviewed 15 years of crash data for the intersection prior to the most recent fatality crash. Including that period, the U.S. 68/KY 139 intersection just south of Cadiz had 32 police-reported crashes that included 4 fatalities, 11 injuries, and 19 crashes with property damage.
The intersection is at U.S. 68 Trigg County mile point 18.375 and KY 139 mile point 15.285 at the south edge of Cadiz. Approximately 6,200 vehicles travel through the intersection in an average day
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.
Studies have found 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. KYTC District 1 has about a half-dozen R-Cut projects in various stages of development.
For information on how an R-Cut works go to www.US45Safety.org.
Timely traffic advisories for the 12 counties of KYTC Highway District 1 are available by going to www.facebook.com/kytcdistrict1. You do not have to be a Facebook member to access this page.
Navigate traffic at goky.ky.gov, at waze.com, or with the WAZE App.