roads

Kentucky is receiving mixed reviews in a new report card looking at the nation’s aging infrastructure. The report was issued Thursday by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

  UPDATE 10:55 a.m.: McCracken County Emergency Management director Jerome Mansfield says Kentucky State Police and the McCracken County Sheriff's Department have extended the I-24 closure to mile marker 7 at Lourdes Hospital. Mansfield says this move will help crews clear I-24 more efficiently.

Kentucky State Police say hundreds of drivers are stranded on a more than 80-mile stretch of Interstate 24.

With 6 to 10 inches of snow across the region, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is urging people to stay home. KTC spokesman Keith Todd said some areas are seeing 15 inches of snow and 2 foot snow drifts are fairly common. Todd said this storm has been more difficult than last month’s due to near blizzard conditions. 

Yesterday’s sun helped melt some of the near record snow Kentucky experienced earlier in the week, but this morning saw another 1 to 2 inches of the white powder across the region. 

Western Kentucky roadways are improving as crews continue to clear pavement with plows and salt, though some ramps and “C” snow priority routes remained covered.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has sent the General Assembly the Recommended Highway Plan that if enacted would give nearly $7 billion of state and federal funding to road projects across the Commonwealth.

Kentucky may have to come up with new ways to pay for road construction and maintenance in the future, but revenues should be sufficient for now. At least that’s the view of the chief engineer for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s regional office in Flemingsburg.

Illinois could have $275 million more for road and bridge projects this year if lawmakers approve a Department of Transportation funding plan. DOT officials have found $400 million mostly in extra federal and free-up state money to pump into the transit improvement program over the next five years. One lawmaker says the DOT wants immediate legislative approval so work can begin when the weather warms up. If the legislation passes it would be a 15 percent increase from the almost $1.8 billion dollars the DOT said it would spend in the fiscal year ending June 30.

About 39,000 motorists in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and western Pennsylvania are expected to call AAA East Central for help while traveling during the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

AAA East Central projects it will replace more than 6,500 dead car batteries, change nearly 6,000 flat tires, retrieve nearly 4,800 sets of keys locked inside vehicles and extricate 2,000 vehicles stuck in snow or mud.