Amanda Van Benschoten

avbnky@nky.com

Expansion of Ky. 9 (the AA Highway) will provide a direct route into the heart of the urban core

Road will open up scores of vacant land to new development and help redevelop Newport's blighted Westside

Easier access to the urban core could also mean big economic development opportunities

Truly transformative infrastructure projects don't come along often for urban areas, especially in aging and blighted neighborhoods.

One such project is finally getting underway in Newport: a new road that will reshape the face of the city's Westside neighborhood and send ripple effects throughout the region's urban core.

After years of planning, the state is finally ready to begin construction on the $38 million expansion of Kentucky Route 9, commonly called the AA Highway. A new 1.5-mile road will be built parallel to the Licking River, providing direct access from the AA Highway to the city's thriving riverfront.

Construction bids will be let in August for the first segment of the project, which runs along Lowell Street between Ninth and 12th streets. The work will include relocating utilities and building the new road.

The orange barrels might not go up until the fall or even next spring. And it will be at least a year before the state is ready to let bids for the rest of the project, which runs north along the Licking River to Fourth Street and then east to the foot of the Taylor-Southgate Bridge. But the long-awaited project is finally becoming a reality.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said City Manager Tom Fromme. "We've been advocating for that roadway for a long time, probably over 20 years. We always felt this was critical for revitalization and to get traffic out of the west end."

It's hard to overestimate the impact of the project, not only for Newport but for Covington, Cincinnati and the rest of the urban core.

On one level, it's a long-overdue transportation fix: thousands of commuters take the four-lane AA Highway north every day to their jobs in Newport, Covington and Cincinnati. Now, that traffic – nearly 9,100 vehicles every day – is dumped into a maze of residential streets.

The new road will take them off of those city streets, which means a faster commute for the drivers and safer neighborhoods for Westside residents.

It's also a significant economic development project. Improving access to the urban core means more residents of the suburbs are likely to visit and spend money there. The new road will also open up scores of acres along the Licking River to new development and spur the redevelopment of the former industrial sites that line the route. City leaders are considering whether to issue bonds to move utilities underground to make those sites even more attractive to redevelopment.

At the project's north end lie 30 acres of land at the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers. The site is slated for Corporex's long-awaited $1 billion Ovation development, which city leaders hope will finally get underway once the expansion of Ky. 9 improves access to the site.

Taking commuters off regular city streets will also allow Newport finally to begin the process of revitalizing Westside neighborhoods.

"That's what I'm most excited about, because having traffic go through a residential area 24 hours a day is really detrimental to a neighborhood," Fromme said. "I think the new roadway will eliminate a lot of those issues."

The project does come at a cost, however: Some businesses will have to move, including KOI Auto Parts at the foot of the Fourth Street bridge to Covington. The city hopes to keep the company in Newport.

It's unclear whether the Travelodge at the foot of the Taylor Southgate Bridge will have to close; state officials are negotiating with the owners now.

Some residents will also be displaced, including about two dozen units at the Peter G. Noll housing project and part of the Victoria Square Apartments on Fifth Street. Housing officials are working with those residents.

Completion of the project depends on how quickly those and other right-of-way issues are resolved. Under a best-case scenario, the entire corridor could be finished in late 2016 or early 2017 – but state officials caution that a late 2017 or early 2018 completion date is also possible.

The project is funded with state, not federal, dollars, so officials don't expect any delays if the federal Highway Trust Fund runs dry. ⬛