Palmer Engineering prepared plans for the replacement of a 1930’s vintage, 27-span continuous concrete slab bridge that carries US 20 over two lines of Norfolk Southern railroad tracks. The crossing was complicated by a high degree of skew between the railroad lines and the highway as well as the need for the new bridge to span two additional railroad lines that may be added in the future.

Beginning in 2013, Palmer was directly involved in the design team’s decision-making process through weekly plan review meetings, standardization of project aesthetics, and structural components. Though not responsible for every bridge in the Interchange, we were apprised of ongoing design and construction decisions/features for every downtown bridge.

This project was part of the Phase I and Phase II design and environmental documentation for reconstruction of I-265 from south of the I-64 Interchange to north of the US 60 Interchange in eastern Jefferson County. The project was 2.3 miles in length, involves major structures, flyovers and ramps, and involved the full environmental examination of more than three alternatives at each Interchange, as well as all widening options between designated termini. At the time of design, the ADT on I-265 was 61,000 and 39,000 on US-60.

The US-25E intersection with KY-233 in Knox County experienced many angle crashes despite having been recently signalized with advance warning flashing beacons. As the lone signal in a long stretch of a 55 mph divided highway, Palmer proposed a RCUT to improve the severe angle crashes. The project team selected the RCUT improvement, and construction was completed July 31, 2018. During the three-year post construction period, this intersection has experienced a 74% reduction in total crashes and 71% reduction in fatal and serious injury crashes.

In 2018, Palmer Engineering was selected to develop the Louisville Roadway Safety Plan. This plan is the first for a local agency in Kentucky and was prepared through the cooperation of Louisville Jefferson County Metro Government (LMG) and the Kentucky Office of Highway Safety. Through coordination with LMG, the findings of the study were incorporated in the Vision Zero Louisville Safety Action Plan. The methods, procedures, and lessons learned from this pilot study will be utilized for other small communities to develop similar action plans.

Palmer Engineering developed conceptual alternatives for a downtown revitalization plan that required changes to the existing road network. The City of Ashland has a goal of improving walkability and safety to enhance business opportunities in the downtown area.

Originally a rural corridor with very little congestion, frequent openings in the median facilitated access and did not adversely affect safety. However, as development along the corridor increased, the frequent openings in the median, coupled with the expanding growth have contributed to increasing congestion and safety concerns.

Palmer Engineering is serving as the Lead Design Consultant on the Design-Build Team (DBT) for the on-going project to rebuild Graves Road from KY-20 to KY-237 and construct a new Double Crossover Diamond (DCD) Interchange for I-275.