Project is expected to be complete in 2023
It was once challenging to look at maps of the proposed Ky. 80-461 expansion in eastern Pulaski County and understand what it would look like when complete.
Now it’s difficult to remember it looked like anything else.
New drone footage shows construction crews are making quick work of this $70 million federal road project, with completion expected later this year. The project — which includes installing a cloverleaf interchange at the intersection of Ky. 80 and 461, expanding Ky. 461 to four lanes from the junction of the two highways to Buck Creek, and building new entryways at Valley Oak Commerce Complex — is funded in part by a $25 million Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) federal transportation grant. It also benefits from a $26.2 million state-federal apportionment, $12.8 million in state funds, a $5 million local match, and other right-of-way donations.
SPEDA President and CEO Chris Girdler called the project a “much-needed expansion that will alleviate traffic congestion, improve road safety and provide transportation access to a rapidly growing industrial community in Pulaski County.”
In addition to the already bustling Valley Oak Commerce Complex — which includes some of Pulaski County’s largest companies like Toyotetsu America, Hendrickson, GatorMade, Performance Foods, Todd Truss & Steel, AppHarvest and Team Modern — this area is part of a larger economic development effort that includes SPEDA Commerce Park. The new 142-acre park located across the highway from Valley Oak will offer certified build-ready sites to industrial prospects, and will soon enter phase 2 of development. The park’s first tenant, the Kentucky National Guard, will build a new regional readiness center and field maintenance shop there on 18 acres. SPEDA recently sold another 11 acres in the park facing Ky. 80 for a large-scale commercial and retail development.
Add that to SPEDA’s sale of property in Valley Oak to Somerset Community College for workforce and lineman training centers as well as 22 acres to a private developer to build affordable housing, and soon a mixed-use community will begin taking shape in one of the fastest-growing areas of Pulaski County, Girdler said.
“The puzzle pieces are finally starting to fit together in the Valley Oak area, and it’s going to be so impactful for the local and regional economy,” Girdler said. “The 80-461 road project is central to all of it. To be able to offer improved transportation access for industrial prospects of SPEDA Commerce Park is incredibly significant, not to mention the value improved access and reduced congestion bring to existing industries that have called this area home for years. Add better traffic flow for Lake Cumberland’s 4 million annual visitors, commercial and retail options for residents and visitors alike, and housing options and training opportunities for industrial park employees, and we really have something special. The future of eastern Pulaski County is being shaped as we speak, and it is most certainly bright.”
Girdler expressed his gratitude to the local, state and federal agencies that have collaborated at historic levels to make projects like the 461/80 expansion and SPEDA Commerce Park a reality.
“It had been so long since leaders in Somerset and Pulaski County invested in projects like these, nearly 20 years, in fact,” Girdler said. “We were behind the curve. I’m grateful for the local, state and federal leaders who stepped in and said it was time to make Somerset and Pulaski County economically competitive again. The 80-461 road project is the conduit for decades of future growth in this area and I can’t wait to see the outcome.”