Harold Rogers

HAZARD, Ky. (WYMT) - State and federal funds have been secured to begin design studies for a four-lane expansion of the Hal Rogers Parkway, Senate President Robert Stivers announced Wednesday. The initial funding is set to support four-laning the road from London to Hazard, a stretch covering nearly 60 miles through the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. The parkway currently runs four lanes in some sections and two lanes in others. Design phase cost exceeds $50 million Stivers said the design phase alone carries a significant price tag. “You have to have a substantial amount of money to do all that type of technical engineering...the total cost of that design phase is in excess of $50 million,” Stivers said. No timetable has been set for construction, but Stivers said the widening project is both overdue and necessary. “Well, it’s the traffic count. And it makes it so much easier for 1. personal travel, 2. tourism travel, and 3. just general moving of product...it just makes it a lot easier coming off of 75 to have that type of four-lane road, that connects the southern part of the region,” Stivers said. Rogers calls expansion long overdue Rep. Hal Rogers also weighed in on the announcement. Tolls were removed from the road in 2003, the same year the road’s name was changed from the Daniel Boone Parkway to the Hal Rogers Parkway. “I became so sick of our people having to pay a toll for a two-lane parkway...and I’m thrilled that Stivers is leading the effort to four-lane that parkway all the way to London,” Rogers said. Stivers made the announcement alongside separate federal infrastructure investments for the region.