Dixie Highway has become a nearly ubiquitous topic of conversation over the past two weeks in the Northern Kentucky cities of Erlanger, Elsmere and Florence.
Last week, Erlanger mayor Jessica Fette posted a video to Facebook announcing that the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet intended to reduce a one-and-a-half-mile section of U.S. Route 25 between Turfway Road and Commonwealth Avenue from four lanes of traffic to two, with a center left turn lane.
In the video, Fette described the project as “being forced upon” the cities and their residents. That led to a city meeting Tuesday night to hear residents’ thoughts.
“I have heard many concerns from business owners that say this is going to be impactful on their ability to thrive within our community,” Fette told LINK nky. “I have heard many individuals say that they will avoid this area if this change moves forward.”
Her statements were similar to those made by Elsmere council members at a special Monday night meeting of the city council on Feb. 16, where the members unanimously dissented to the project.
On Tuesday afternoon, hours before the Erlanger caucus, KYTC decided to put a pause on the project. Many who attended the meeting had not heard, though, and applause broke out when Chief District Engineer Bob Yeager reported it to the 70-or-so assembled residents. He went on to be asked questions by the assembled council members about the financing and secrecy of the project.
The main draw, as KYTC saw it, was the cost-effectiveness of the restructuring and resurfacing, as well as its purported safety improvements. No federal funding would be needed for it, and all the money could come squarely from within the budget that the Cabinet has allocated for such projects.
“It was practically at no cost,” Yeager said.
Fette did emphasize that Erlanger and KYTC have a good relationship and are currently working on several projects together. She gave the reconstruction of Stevenson Road and Kenton Lands as examples.
“We’ve had a lot of projects on state routes that we’ve had good collaboration with you guys,” Fette said.
Yeager said the conversation at the meeting, and public input, was helpful.
“Looking back, it’s certainly easy to see that this is disruptive,” Yeager said. “If any of us learned a lesson today, it will be me.”
Some of the speakers were concerned about businesses along Dixie Highway, as Fette expressed in her Facebook video.
“My clients book appointments, they plan their time carefully, and this plan would create confusion, detours, and difficulty entering points,” said Amy Staten, who owns Adore Hair Studio on Bartlett Avenue in Erlanger. “Many will cancel, and maybe not come at all.”
Jeff Niceley, owner of Niceley’s Appliance Repair in Erlanger, wasn’t sure about the idea either.
“I think we all agree that something needs to be done with Dixie Highway, I just don’t think we should do something that makes it worse,” Niceley said.
Niceley pointed to an initiative across the river for reference –– the 2023 Glenway Avenue Traffic Calming project — which similarly reduced a two mile section of a four lane road down to two lanes and a center turning lane.
The city of Cincinnati cited nearly 269 vehicular crashes on the street in 2022 as a reason for the safety measures. The next year, after the project was implemented, crashes were down to 144; a nearly 46% drop according to city data. However, many that drive on Glenway complain that the new lane configuration contributed to traffic congestion, and some said their commutes were an additional 10 to 20 minutes longer.
“For people that travel that road daily, they say it’s terrible,” Niceley said. “It’s a hot mess.”
Former Kenton County Deputy Judge/Executive Scott Kimmich also spoke on a prescient project, one which he was a part of; the Dixie Highway Corridor Study. Collected in 2004 and published in May of 2005, the study includes multiple potential short, medium and long term projects that could fix the problems that plagued the road more than 20 years ago. Interestingly, the project calls for the creation of three turning lanes on Beechwood Road, Highland Avenue and Dudley Road.
“Let’s go back and take a study that was done with good public money off the shelf, dust it off, and look at what was said,” Kimmich said.