All but $100,000 of Nat Rogers Road project funded

State funding has been allocated for all but $100,000 of a project to raise a section of Nat Rogers Road that frequently floods.

TOM ISAAC/PLG News

A section of Nat Rogers Road, KY 46, known as Bull Run floods frequently when it rains.

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Flooding in the stretch of Nat Rogers, or KY 46, known as Bull Run has led to numerous car accidents through the years — most recently, when Stanley "Ned" Rosenbaum, 71, Boston, drove off the side of the road while it was flooded and drowned when his car sunk underwater.

Gov. Steve Beshear announced Wednesday he had allocated $300,000 in excess or restricted road funds for the $747,291 project to raise the road above flood level. But Friday afternoon, state Rep. David Floyd said he had learned from Commissioner of Rural Roads Don Pasley that the state would be able to contribute much more to the project.

“The county will take on $100,000 of the cost of the project,” Floyd said.

The rest will be paid for out of rural and secondary program funds, an emergency fund and restricted road funds, according to Floyd.

County funding would come out of Magistrate Keith Metcalfe’s road fund, Judge Executive Dean Watts said. Bull Run is in magisterial District 1, which Metcalfe represents.

Each magistrate is allocated $120,000 annually to designate for road repairs within his or her district.

“Magistrate Metcalfe and myself worked out a plan that we would submit to the state that Magistrate Metcalfe would use some of his county money over the next couple years to move the project along,” Watts said. “That’s the pitch I made to the secretary (of transportation) and to the commissioner.”

The $100,000 would come out of Metcalfe’s road fund for the next two years, he said.

Metcalfe declined to comment at the governor’s request to await his formal announcement. Watts, too, said he would await the announcement — expected in the next week — before he committed to the project or commented further.

State Sen. Jimmy Higdon also played a key role in making the case for Nat Rogers Road, meeting with Kentucky Secretary of Transportation Mike Hancock after the accident that killed Rosenbaum. Higdon also declined to talk extensively about the funding until the governor’s announcement. 

“The governor has to OK those — the spending of those funds. They’re requested through the Transportation Secretary — Secretary Hancock. He does a fabulous job and has been very agreeable with helping Nelson County,” Higdon said. “We’re really thankful that the governor did this for us. … It was a team effort between Keith Metcalfe, Judge Watts, David Floyd and myself.”

Higdon added that the legislature is now working on a road plan for this year’s budget, and named two Nelson County projects as top priorities. Both are part of the Six-Year Road Plan, but Higdon said he hopes to have them added to the Biennial Road Plan, which generally insures a project will be completed more quickly.

“The No. 1 priority would be the 31E project that goes from (High Grove) out to the Spencer County line,” Higdon said. “That’s because it’s a dangerous section of highway.”

The second priority is the Blue Grass Parkway interchange at KY 150 — repairing the on- and off-ramps and widening the road.

“When that thing was built nobody ever imagined the traffic that would be there,” Higdon said.

The Biennial Road Plan allocates funding in two-year cycles: the first two years, money is appropriated for planning and design; two years later, funding is allocated for right-of-way acquisition; and two more years later, money is appropriated from construction.

The Blue Grass Parkway project would not require the often-lengthy right-of-way process, which could possibly be skipped, Higdon said.

In contrast, he said, “There’s been some projects in the Six-Year Road Plan forever.” The recently completed Lebanon Bypass was in the plan for about 25 years, he said.

When Higdon met with Hancock, he said his intention was to assert the importance of the Nat Rogers Road project in the hopes it would be completed more quickly than if it were placed on the Six-Year Road Plan.

ERIN L. MCCOY can be contacted at emccoy@kystandard.com.