A contractor for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) plans a permanent traffic shift to the Restricted Crossing U-Turn (R-Cut) installations at two intersections along U.S. 45 between Mayfield and Paducah on Wednesday, August 11.
Construction has progressed at the U.S. 45/KY 408 intersection north of Mayfield and the U.S. 45/KY 1288 intersection south of Lone Oak to allow traffic to permanently move to the R-Cut alignment at these locations.
Wednesday morning at 9:00, the median in the existing intersections will be closed, with traffic moving to the R-Cut crossing points.
The existing traffic signal at the U.S. 45/KY 408 intersection will be placed in flashing mode until it is removed later in the project.
North-south traffic on U.S. 45 seeking to make a left turn will merge into the median crossing point, wait for oncoming traffic to clear, then turn and merge into the opposite lane of travel to reach KY 408 or KY 1288. Traffic on KY 408 and KY 1288 make a right turn, then use the median cross over to change directions after yielding to oncoming traffic.
These R-Cut installations along U.S. 45 are designed to enhance safety at these two intersections between Mayfield and Paducah.
By restricting left turns, then directing traffic to a dedicated turn lane with a modified U-turn the feature allows drivers to divide the decision to navigate through the intersection into several smaller decisions. It reduces the 36 identifiable conflict points in a normal intersection by half and eliminates traffic movements that create more serious injury crashes.
