The final phase of improvements along the Clays Mill Road corridor, from Harrodsburg Road to just north of New Circle Road, are being done in several sections.
TRAFFIC UPDATES:
- Clays Mill Road is open to traffic. The project is complete except for final cleanup and to-do list items that will be finished this spring. This includes concrete and asphalt repairs, permanent roadway markings and additional plantings.
- Southbend Drive is now permanently one-way from Lone Oak Drive to Clays Mill.
Project Status
Section A, Waco to Pasadena – Completed
Section B, Pasadena to Stratford – Completed
Section C, Stratford to Lane Allen/Rosemont Garden – Completed
Section D, Lane Allen/Rosemont Garden to Harrodsburg – Major work completed; concrete and asphalt repairs, permanent roadway markings and additional plantings to be completed in 2023.
Background
Clays Mill Road is a 3.7-mile urban minor arterial through a mixed-use area consisting of residential, school, church and some commercial land.
The road improvement project extends between Harrodsburg Road and Twain Ridge. Increased development in southwest Lexington has resulted in increased traffic on Clays Mill Road.
Current traffic volume ranges between 15,000 and 20,000 vehicles a day. City transportation planners estimate that traffic volume could be between 20,000 and 25,000 vehicles a day by 2020. The area has also experienced a large number of accidents (363 in one 21-month period), many of which were rear-end collisions.
The project is designed to relieve congestion and improve safety while maintaining the road’s residential character.
Design recommendations
- Add a middle turn lane along the entire route, with right turn lanes at major intersections.
- Add bicycle lanes on each side of the road, in accordance with the Comprehensive Plan, the MPO’s Year 2025 Transportation Plan, and Greenway Master Plan recommendations.
- Add five-foot sidewalks on each side of the road. Throughout most of the project, the existing back edge of sidewalk location will remain the same.
- Add an extra through lane at four major intersections: Man o’ War, Wellington Way, Pasadena Drive, and Rosemont Garden. This would result in local widening to five lanes at these intersections, with a sixth lane for right turns in a shorter portion of the area. This “extra widening” would result in necessary right-of-way acquisition at the Pasadena and Rosemont intersections.
- Increase safety by increasing access to local driveways, adding new sidewalks, eliminating roadside ditches, improving drainage, and adding a significant landscaping element.
Impact on trees
Up to 100 trees could be lost. An inspection of these trees has found that many of them are in decline, diseased, or have suffered storm damage. Another significant number of trees will either block the line of sight for safe travel or will interfere with utilities after the road is widened. Numerous trees will be planted in the landscaping portion of the project; at locations where existing trees are impacted, large caliper, specimen-quality trees will be planted.