Northern Kentucky legislators announced Thursday morning that Scott and Greenup streets in Covington will switch to two-way streets in the near future.
Currently, Scott Street is a one-way thoroughfare toward the South, and Greenup is a one-way thoroughfare toward the North.
Rep. Sal Santoro (R-Union) made the announcement during the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce’s Legislative Recap. Santoro said the project would turn the two thoroughfares into two-way streets meant to keep traffic in the downtown business corridor.
“The businesses are very much in favor of this,” Santoro said, who elaborated that Covington mayor approached the legislators with a request for funding for the project.
“The city has been working on the conversion of Scott and Greenup Streets since 2018,” said Covington Mayor Joe Meyer. “We are very pleased the project has been funded by the General Assembly.”
There will be $2.5 million in funding for the project, which will also have some budget to improve Madison Avenue.
“We’re trying to have people recognize that you just don’t want to get out of Northern Kentucky,” Santoro said. “We want you to stay in Northern Kentucky. That’s why we’re making these two-way streets.”
Currently, there is no set timeline for the project, but Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ryland Heights) said he expects the project to be complete in the next two years, if not sooner.
“This does allow for people who want to be residents of those areas to have easier access to parking,” McDaniel said.
There has also been a push to work on the 15th Street Bridge, which has been closed down for quite a while. When working on the project, leaders found out that the bridge is not owned by the city or county but by the railroad.
“So, we had to actually put a Memorandum of Understanding process in place to appropriate the money to the city, so that the 15th street bridge can be reopened to get some connectivity from over on the West Side over more towards the Central District in Covington,” McDaniel said
