Right now orange construction barrels are sitting alongside southbound 471 in Northern Kentucky. Starting Friday evening crews will be moving them into place as reconstruction starts on the interstate.
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District Engineer Rob Hans said it’s a continuation of a project that started last year.
“We will be completely replacing all of the deteriorated concrete pavement in the southbound direction with new asphalt pavement,” Hans said. “It will be exactly the same type of material that is on the northbound direction that was installed last year.”
Work also includes repairing and replacing the roadway surfaces of bridge decks along the corridor at U.S. 27, Chesapeake, Sixth Street and the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge (Big Mac Bridge).
Guardrails and lighting will also be improved. A second ramp lane will be added from southbound 471 to westbound 275. In addition, crews will be extending the 4th lane coming off the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge. It will extend past Kentucky 8 to the Memorial Parkway exit.
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Work Zone Safety Coordinator Bob Hill said the project will be completed in three phases.
“In phase one, traffic will be shifted to the left so that we can reconstruct the right side shoulders,” Hill said. “In phase two, traffic will be shifted to the right so that we can construct the inside shoulder, the high speed lane and part of the center lane. And then in phase three, traffic will be shifted back to the left so that we can complete the center lane, the right lane and the ramps.”
Crews will be installing barrier walls for the traffic shift. For most of the project, traffic will be reduced to two lanes, which will cause significant delays.
The speed limit will be reduced to 55 mph in the construction zone.
“Please pay extra attention when you are entering construction work zones,” Hill said. “Last year there were three fatalities in our work zones and that was three too many.”
More than 100,000 vehicles daily use the 5.7 mile 471 corridor.
In the fall of 2010, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet began the “Revive the Drive-NKY,” a wide-ranging initiative to make needed bridge and highway repairs and improvement across northern Kentucky’s interstates 71, 75, 275 and 471.
