PULASKI COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Employees with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spoke before an animated crowd of concerned residents in Pulaski County Thursday night, as they presented their proposal to try to improve the safety conditions at the intersection of US 27/KY 70.
"I call it a cluster for the last few years because we have a lot of wrecks there, constantly," said Norman Rutherford Eubank Fire Department Chief.
Noting that there have been 27 documented collisions at the intersection between September of 2016 and January of 2021, the transportation officials said that a Restricted Crossing U-Turn (RCUT) would be the most logical and quickest solution.
Under the proposal, the RCUT will be constructed along with right-turn lanes onto KY 70. The completion of the project is scheduled for October 30, 2021.
More information on what an RCUT would look like can be found here: transportation.ky.gov
The presentation was not well received by the crowd of dozens of Eubank residents, who consistently interrupted the employees and complained that their concerns were not being heard.
Many in the crowd repeated their desire to have a traffic signal established at the intersection.
"The other day I was going to Somerset and a car just jolted out in front of me in the median and a second car jolted out behind it," said Sherrie Sweet a concerned resident. "And its tail end was sticking out in the road, so yeah, we need to do something."
The employees, perhaps expecting the pushback, included a slide entitled “Why not use a signal to prevent crashes?”
The bullet notes under the title read:
- “a signal is not a safety device”
- “a signal is a traffic control device used to manage vehicles after traffic volumes exceed a certain threshold”
