Kenton County plans to set speed limits on two rural roads in the southern part of the county.
On Tuesday, the Kenton County Fiscal Court approved an ordinance setting 35 mph speed limits on Hempfling Road and Pruett Road. The measure was first introduced at a fiscal court meeting on Aug. 6.
Pruett Road is located southwest of Ryalnd Heights and is about half a mile long. The road connects Petty Road and Marshall Road. Hempfling Road, between the rural communities of Piner and Morning View, is nearly 5.5 miles long. Hempfling Road runs from KY-17, also known as Madison Pike, to Rich Road.
Kenton County Public Works Director Spencer Stork informed the legislative body that the county’s engineering services department carried out a traffic analysis for both roads and concluded that preventative measures were necessary to reduce speeds.
“This ordinance specifically is for establishing speed limits on two rural routes that currently do not have speed limits established,” he said. “That’s Pruett Road and Hempling Road, both of those. We did an analysis of the traffic conditions out there and we did sight distance requirements and that sort of thing, and determined that 35 miles an hour would be the appropriate speed to set for those.”
At the Aug. 6 fiscal court meeting, Stork stated that both Hempfling and Pruett roads were previously under the jurisdiction of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet before being incorporated into the county’s road system.
Since there were no speed limit markers on Pruett Road, the speed limit defaulted to 55 miles per hour, as mandated by state law. The speed limit on Hempfling Road was previously 45 miles per hour.
“Based on the conditions of the roadway, we did an analysis of the current traffic and the speeds that they were traveling, looked at sight distance requirements and those type of things, and 35 miles an hour (was the speed the county landed on),” he said.
According to the official ordinance, this legislation is part of a broader initiative to standardize speed limits across unincorporated areas of Kenton County. These areas are primarily rural, unlike the urban and suburban regions in the northern part of the county.
Kenton County Commissioner Beth Sewell stated that both roads had been flagged during earlier meetings of the South Kenton County Group.
“Those two specific roads that had come up several times at the south (Kenton) county review of roads,” she said. “We still have more on that list. I know you’ve looked into that and had (Kentucky) state police monitor them.”
