If you’re going to Keeneland or heading downtown for weekend events, the best advice is come early, stay late -- and revel in the wide variety of activities available this weekend in Lexington.
Click here to view a PDF map of Downtown Events and Traffic Impacts
Although motorists may face traffic congestion downtown on Saturday, Oct. 10, because of various road projects and because a significant number of events are planned, the city is taking a number of steps to manage traffic so that people who are going to the event or traveling through will have an enjoyable time at their destination:
- Thanks to University of Kentucky Parking and Transportation Services, motorists will be able to tune in to UK’s radio station, WQKH 253, 1700 AM, to get information about downtown traffic conditions.
- Lexington police are ramping up by adding 15 more officers to the traffic detail.
- Police will keep the police helicopter in the air to spot problems.
- Changeable message boards will be placed in key locations to alert motorists about the latest traffic conditions.
- Maxwell Street, which is currently blocked at South Limestone Street, will be opened temporarily between 9 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 a.m. Sunday.
- LexTran is running special downtown shuttles between parking lots at the Red Mile and Applebee’s Stadium to Rupp Arena and the Robert F. Stephens Courthouse Plaza.
- The city’s Traffic Management Center will be staffed from 6 p.m. Saturday to 12:30 a.m. Sunday to adjust signal timing when necessary and to send out advisories about traffic problems.
Some of the major traffic generators are Keeneland, which opens its fall meet Friday; the Festival Latino de Lexington, which gets underway on Saturday, a rock concert at Rupp Arena on Saturday night; and Second Sunday events, which will close several downtown streets from 1-7 p.m. on Sunday. The Second Sunday event encourages physical activity by allowing pedestrians, cyclists, runners, skateboarders and others to use the streets.
These and other weekend events, along with improvements to Lexington’s streets, sewers, and other infrastructure, make it likely that motorists will encounter delays and detours.
For the Festival Latino de Lexington, Short Street will be closed from Upper Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard about 7 p.m. Friday through midnight Saturday. The turn lane and one through lane of North Limestone between Main and Barr streets will be blocked from 7 a.m. to midnight Saturday. The event starts at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Courthouse Plaza at Main and Limestone streets.
Several other Saturday downtown events are also expected to draw crowds:
- The Kings of Leon rock concert at Rupp Arena;
- For the Bourbon Chase, runners will intermittently make their way east on Manchester Street (facing traffic) from 3-7 p.m. Saturday. Traffic will be slowed on Manchester between Thompson Road and Jefferson Street. Main Street will be closed between Broadway and Jefferson from 3-10 p.m. for the event. The runners’ ultimate destination is Triangle Park.
- A performance by the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre at the Lexington Opera House on Broadway.
- The weekend-long WRFL Party at Buster’s in the Distillery District.
Lexington officials are asking the public to:
- Consider riding the special LexTran shuttles that will pick passengers up at parking lots at Red Mile and Applebee’s Stadium and drop them off at the Courthouse Plaza or Rupp Arena. The shuttles will run from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday and riders will be charged $2.50 each way. Riders must have exact change, LexTran officials said.
- Watch for emergency vehicles from surrounding counties using alternate routes to reach Lexington hospitals instead of going through downtown.
- Leave early and plan on staying late. Downtown restaurants will be encouraged to stay open late.
Events continue on Sunday, Oct. 11, when Lexington will close several downtown streets from 1-7 p.m. for Second Sunday activities. Streets that will be closed to vehicle traffic are Main Street from Deweese to Mill; Mill Street from Main to Short Street; Short Street from Mill to Deweese; Deweese from Short to Main; and all intersecting streets.
Related construction projects in the downtown area include:
- South Limestone Street closed to through traffic from the Avenue of Champions to Vine Street. Businesses remain open. For a list of businesses and more information see www.southlimestoneprogress.com.
- Work on the Newtown Pike Extension by the state Department of Highways has shut down West Main Street at Newtown Pike through mid October. A marked detour follows Main Street to Jefferson Street to Manchester Street to South Forbes Road and over to Versailles Road.
- There also are single lane closures where Maxwell and High streets merge into Versailles Road.
- The University of Kentucky is closing South Limestone Street from 6 p.m., Friday, Oct. 9, to 5 a.m., Monday, Oct. 12, between Waller Avenue and Virginia Avenue, to install an overhead walkway between the new hospital and its parking garage.
- The state Department of Highways will close lanes on the Newtown Pike Bridge over New Circle Road for repairs. Work will be performed beginning at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 9, and continue through 5 a.m. Monday, Oct. 12.