LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Editor's Note: Above video originally aired on Jan. 11, 2024.
Construction on a project that will redesign one of Louisville’s historic streets is set to begin soon after more than a decade of planning.
The East Market Streetscape Transformation Project, a $13 million investment, will transform several blocks of East Market Street in NuLu to provide more safety for drivers and pedestrians.
A groundbreaking will be held on June 17, with construction expected to finish by October 2025.
“This project is going to enhance the already vibrant NuLu neighborhood and help it spread even further out into surrounding neighborhoods,” Mayor Craig Greenberg said on Tuesday.
He added that it's "critically important" to continue investing into surrounding communities to preserve their unique cultures.
“One of the things that makes Louisville so special is the uniqueness of all our neighborhoods across the city,” he said. “NuLu is different from Smoketown, different from Butchertown, different from the Central Business District…we’re looking to invest in all of them.”
In Smoketown, Greenberg pointed to his proposed budget’s $500,000 investment to improve Ballard Park. He said his administration is also speaking to neighborhood leaders to learn what more can be done to help grow the community.
“We need to focus on every neighborhood to help them preserve the authenticity and uniqueness that makes them so strong and unique, while improving the infrastructure or whatever else they uniquely need to help them thrive in their own way,” the mayor said.
Greenberg also credited the city’s Public Works Department for their commitment to getting the project started after more than 12 years in limbo.
“When we started talking about this when I first became mayor a year-and-a-half ago, [Public Works] said, ‘We have got to start getting some of these projects done that we’ve been talking about in our city for far too long,'" he said. “They were eager to dig in, to listen to the community and to make it happen.”
Public Works Director Jennifer Caummisar-Kern said project leaders have spoken with businesses to ensure festivals and shops can operate with minimal impact from construction. She said crews will be working on two blocks at a time and only on one side of the road.
“Anything worthwhile takes time,” she said about the project, which began in 2010 and has gone through multiple redesigns and delays in the years since.
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