A deadly stretch of New Circle Road is going to be redesigned with $21.7 million

The federal government has awarded Lexington nearly $22 million to make much-needed improvements to New Circle Road on the city’s north side.

The $21.7 million project will overhaul the infrastructure of one of Lexington’s busiest roadways and implement several changes to improve motorist and pedestrian safety and reduce traffic fatalities, according to a release from Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Chris Evilia, director of the Lexington Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, said this is one of the largest one-time federal transportation grants the city has received.

“We are really thrilled that we were successful,” Evilia said. “This has been a rough year for crashes. This is going to be a big help for us.”

The Lexington Area Metropolitan Planning Organization helps plan and manage federally-funded transportation projects for Lexington and Jessamine County.

The project will include reconstruction of New Circle Road from Boardwalk to Bryan Station Road. It will include new interchanges. Plans also call for bike and pedestrian paths. Currently there are no pedestrian and bike paths in that area. The project will also make it more user-friendly for Lextran users.

“This will address crashes that are occurring in the intersections. In addition to making it more transit friendly, we are trying to make it more bike/pedestrian friendly. It would approximately double the number of safe crossing points,” Evilia said.

In addition to money for reconstruction of the intersections, the grant includes $350,000 for a public safety campaign to target safe driving behaviors across the city. There is also money for a new vision zero coordinator, who will help the city implement other safety initiatives to address fatal crashes and crashes with serious injuries.

Evilia said the city is hoping the project will start in the next 18 months.

The city will put in $1 million in city money for the project.

From 2015 to 2021, that section of New Circle Road experienced the highest number of Lexington’s fatal and serious injury crashes.

There were 34 fatal or severe crashes during that period. Nearly half of those — 44% — were people walking or bicycling, according to data provided by the city. More than 40,000 vehicles travel that section of road every day.

Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton went to Washington D.C. to secure funding for the project.

“We are thrilled to receive this federal support to make improvements along the New Circle Road corridor on the north side,” said Gorton. “Thank you to Senator McConnell, Senator Paul, Rep. Barr, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, and Kentucky Secretary of Transportation Jim Gray — they all worked together to make it happen. With this grant, we can make critical upgrades that will help us reduce pedestrian incidents and injuries, increase lighting, provide better neighborhood access, and create new shared use paths.”

The federal funding is made possible from the U.S. Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Funding Opportunity, part of a large infrastructure bill passed two years ago.

“Traffic fatalities continue to take a tragic toll on communities across the commonwealth, especially on New Circle Road in Lexington. Fortunately, we are taking important strides to reduce this deadly trend, and I’m grateful to see today’s significant investment help deploy commonsense safety improvements in the community,” McConnell said in a written release.

McConnell was one of the few Republicans to vote for the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, calling it a “godsend” for Kentucky, in 2021.