New Circle Road#History

New Circle Road was constructed in several segments from 1950 to 1967{{cite news |last= Hall |first= Elizabeth Wade |title=To Widen or Not: Some with Homes Nearby Worried |work=Herald-Leader |location=Lexington, KY |date= February 25, 1997}} {{page needed|date=June 2012}} as a circumferential bypass. The first segment to be built, from KY 922 (Newtown Pike) to US 25 (Richmond Road)/US 421, was constructed by the city of Lexington in 1952 as two-lane connector road.{{cite news |last= Gaines |first= John |title=A New Wave of Development Sweeps over New Circle Road |work= Herald-Leader |location=Lexington, KY |date= November 12, 1984}}{{page needed|date=June 2012}} The original section included at-grade intersections at Palumbo Drive, KY 1927 (Liberty Road), KY 57 (Bryan Station Road), Old Paris Pike, US 27/US 68, and at KY 353 (Russell Cave Road), with one interchange at US 60 (Winchester Road). This segment of the road is also known as the Northern Belt Line or the US 25 Bypass.{{Cite book |publisher = City Publishing |title= Cross Reference Directory, Greater Lexington |date=May 1981}}{{page needed|date=June 2012}}

To help finance the construction of the original 1952 portion, driveway access was sold to property owners along the route.http://www.newcircleroad.com/ {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040403075734/http://www.newcircleroad.com/ |date=April 3, 2004 }}

After the opening, this section experienced rapid growth and the need to widen it to four lanes from two became evident. In 1958, maintenance was taken over by the state and construction began on the widening to four lanes as it became US 25 Bypass.

The remainder of the highway around Lexington was constructed to near-urban freeway standards with controlled access. Construction of interchanges at US 25 (Richmond Road)/US 421, KY 1974 (Tates Creek Road), US 27 (Nicholasville Road), US 68 (Harrodsburg Road), US 60 (Versailles Road), KY 1681 (Old Frankfort Pike), US 421 (Leestown Road), US 25 (Georgetown Road) and at KY 922 (Newtown Pike). The interchange with Alumni Drive was constructed in late 1984 at a cost of $2 million with the extension of what was then Mount Tabor Road southeastward towards Man o' War Boulevard.{{cite news |last= Davis |first= Merlene |title= Several Projects Helping To Ease Area's Traffic Woes |work= Herald-Leader |location= Lexington, KY |date= January 27, 1985}}{{page needed|date=June 2012}}

The interchange with US 60 (Winchester Road), built in 1961, was sorely out-of-date by the 1980s. Tight {{convert|15|mi/h|km/h|abbr=on}} ramps and a narrow underpass with no acceleration or deceleration lanes made this a dangerous pseudo-cloverleaf interchange. Trucks, too tall for the substandard overpass height clearance, would frequently damage the bridge girders. Work started in the late 1990s to convert this outdated exit into a single-point urban interchange (SPUI). There are two left turn lanes on each ramp, and those are controlled by a single traffic light instead of two. Longer ramps for merging onto New Circle Road were added. In the fall of 2000, the new Winchester Road interchange opened to traffic at a cost of $8.1 million.{{cite news |title= Interchange Done Ahead of Schedule |work= Herald-Leader |location= Lexington, KY |date= June 19, 2000 |page= B1}}

An early study, part of the "Urban County Government's Year 2000 Transportation Plan", stated that New Circle should be widened to six-lanes by the year 2000.

In 1987, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government recommended a solution to the {{convert|6.1|mi|km|adj=on}} section of New Circle Road from Georgetown Road/US 25 to Richmond Road/US 25/US 421. New Circle Road in the northeastern quadrant of Lexington has high traffic volumes, numerous accidents and traffic delays as motorists face numerous commercial access points, congested intersections, poor traffic signal progressions, and a very low level of service made worse during peak hours. None of these recommendations by the urban government were implemented however.{{cite web |title= New Circle Road |publisher= Kentucky Transportation Cabinet |year= 2002 |url= http://www.newcircleroad.com |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20040403075734/http://www.newcircleroad.com/ |archive-date= 2004-04-03 }}

By 1997, a section of New Circle from Tates Creek Road to Nicholasville Road was averaging more than 60,000 vehicles per day, up from 17,000 30 years ago and an increase of 256%.

In August 1999, the Kentucky Transportation Center at the University of Kentucky College of Engineering completed Research Report KTC-99-55, "Conversion of New Circle Road to a limited Access Facility". The study compared the addition of one lane in each direction with the use of median U-turns and restricted left-turn strategies at selected intersections from Newtown Pike/KY 922 to Richmond Road/US 25/US 421. This was presented to the Lexington Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and is considered to have been the stimulus for the development of the New Circle Road Northeast improvement study that began on December 1 of 1999.{{cite report |title= Conversion of New Circle Road to a limited Access Facility |publisher= Kentucky Transportation Center, University of Kentucky, Federal Highway Administration |date=August 1998}}

Four alternatives for the segment from Newtown Pike/KY 922 to Richmond Road/US 25/US 421 were presented and a fifth was introduced later after combining several key ideas that the residents voiced their approval of at several public meetings:

In November 2012, the Kentucky Department of Transportation announced the widening of New Circle Road from four to six lanes from just west of Georgetown Road to Versailles Road. Construction began in the fall of 2013 and was completed in 2016 at a cost of $80 million.{{cite news |url=http://www.kentucky.com/2012/11/19/2414667/new-circle-versailles-roads-part.html |title=New Circle To Be Widened From Georgetown to Versailles Roads |date=November 19, 2012 |work=Lexington Herald-Leader |access-date=2013-05-16}}

{{jcttop|exit|state=KY|location=Lexington|county=Fayette|length_ref={{cite web|url=http://www.planning.kytc.ky.gov/data_reports.asp |publisher=Kentucky Transportation Cabinet |author=Division of Planning |title=Highway Information System Official Milepoint Route Log Extract |access-date=April 7, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070430064216/http://www.planning.kytc.ky.gov/data_reports.asp |archive-date=April 30, 2007 }}}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=2.224

|exit=2

|road={{jct|state=KY|US|68|name1=Harrodsburg Road|city1=Harrodsburg|city2=Lexington}}

|notes=Diverging diamond interchange

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=4.611

|exit=5

|road={{jct|state=KY|US|60|name1=Versailles Road|to2=to|Parkway|Bluegrass|city1=Versailles|city2=Lexington}}

|notes=Signed as exits 5A (east) and 5B (west)

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=6.336

|exit=6

|road={{jct|state=KY|KY|1681|name1=Old Frankfort Pike}}

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=7.239

|exit=7

|road={{jct|state=KY|US|421|name1=Leestown Road|city1=Frankfort|city2=Lexington}}

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=8.731

|exit=8

|road={{jct|state=KY|US|25|city1=Georgetown|city2=Lexington}}

|notes=

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=9.324

|exit=9

|road={{jct|state=KY|KY|922|name1=Newtown Pike|to2=to|I|64|I|75|city1=Lexington}}

|notes=Clockwise end of freeway; Signed as exits 9A (south) and 9B (north)

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=

|road=Lexmark

|notes=Interchange

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=10.356

|road={{jct|state=KY|KY|353|dir1=north|name1=Russell Cave Road}}

|notes=At-grade intersection

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=10.665

|road={{jct|state=KY|US|27|US|68|name2=North Broadway|city1=Paris|city2=Cynthiana}}

|notes=At-grade intersection

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=11.339

|road={{jct|state=KY|KY|57|dir1=north|name1=Bryan Station Road|road|Bryan Avenue}}

|notes=At-grade intersection

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=12.704

|exit=13

|road={{jct|state=KY|US|60|to2=to|I|75|I|64|city1=Winchester|city2=Lexington}}

|notes=Single-point urban interchange}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=13.669

|road={{jct|state=KY|KY|1927|dir1=east|name1=Liberty Road}}

|notes=At-grade intersection

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=14.843

|exit=15

|road={{jct|state=KY|US|25|US|421|city1=Richmond|city2=Lexington}}

|notes=Counterclockwise end of freeway

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=16.123

|exit=16

|road=Alumni Drive

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=17.748

|exit=18

|road={{jct|state=KY|KY|1974|name1=Tates Creek Road|city1=Lexington}}

}}

{{KYint|exit

|mile=19.283

|exit=19

|road={{jct|state=KY|US|27|name1=Nicholasville Road|city1=Nicholasville|city2=Lexington}}

}}

{{jctbtm|exit}}

• {{Portal-inline|U.S. roads}}
• List of roads in Lexington, Kentucky

{{Reflist}}

{{Attached KML|display=inline,title}}

• {{cite web|url= http://transportation.ky.gov/Planning/SPRS%20Maps/Fayette.pdf |title=State Primary Road System in Fayette County }} {{small|(1.33 MB)}}
• [http://www.kentuckyroads.com/ky_4/ KY 4] at KentuckyRoads.com
• [http://www.newcircleroadwidening.com/ New Circle Road Widening Project]

{{Fayette County/Lexington, Kentucky}}

{{Named Roads in Kentucky}}

Category:Beltways in the United States

Category:Transportation in Lexington, Kentucky

Category:Freeways in the United States

Category:Expressways in the United States