FLEMINGSBURG —Repairs to a slide area on Kentucky 3056 in Mason County are now under way, officials with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said Monday.
Crews will work through the winter to stabilize the hillside and reopen the roadway.
In January, continued rockfalls forced state highway engineers to close the roadway about two tenths of a mile east of Jersey Ridge Road – a section of roadway connecting to Kentucky 8 near downtown Maysville that serves about 500 vehicles per day.
Since then, the Transportation Cabinet has conducted a geological investigation of the slide area, sought and secured about $500,000 in repair funding, engineered repair drawings, talked with landowners, secured right-of-way easements, and hired a contractor. Crews began clearing trees around Nov. 15, and are now repairing the slide area.
Repair plans call for benching the steep rock hillside above the roadway. Excavators will cut into the hillside to create a series of stair-step benches that will not only remove unstable rock and debris but also create a gentler slope to help prevent any future rockfalls from the reaching the pavement.
Work requires extensive excavation and will take several months to complete. Engineers do not have an estimated completion date, but contractors will work as quickly as possible to repair and reopen the roadway.
Motorists should expect work and the road closure to continue throughout the winter months, and should continue to detour using Kentucky 8 and U.S. 68, or other routes. (If you normally use Kentucky 3056 from downtown Maysville to access Ashwood Drive, Winton Woods Drive, Vernon Street you will need to detour.)
For safety reasons – especially now that contractors are working on the hillside above the roadway – motorists are asked not to drive around or move the barricades.
