BULLITT COUNTY, Ky. — When driving through Bullitt County you may have noticed most highways only have single lanes in both directions that stretch for miles. That will all be changing soon. within the next six years thanks to multiple financial investments.
Thanks to multiple financial investments, construction to widen roadways across the county will take place over the next six years, including roads like the two that run right through Shepherdsville.
Widening projects are already in motion east of Highway 44 in Mount Washington.
Redevelopment will continue in several different phases and eventually make it's way back west to Shepherdsville. It will then continue on to the rest of the county in the same direction.
"Our roads in Bullitt County are not just for us," Senator Mike Nemes (District 38) said. "They're for the whole state."
As the county continues to see growth, local leaders like Nemes and Bullitt County Executive Judge Jerry Summers said it's time to address the county's traffic issues.
"There's many people in Spencer and Nelson County that need to come through Bullitt County to go to work in Louisville, or to the battery plant, or to Ford," Nemes said.
By 2030, additional lanes will be added to highways to ease ambulances rides to facilities like UofL Health South Hospital.
"There is no shoulders, no access," Summers said. "We've had to buy literally four wheel drive ambulances just to make sure we can get patients to and from bad accidents. Because when you have an accident on a highway like 44 or 61 South of Shepherdsville there is no pull offs."
These projects will also help manage school traffic along highways like in Mount Washington.
"There are talks that in the next five years it could be one of the largest public high schools in the Commonwealth," Keith Griffee, chief financial officer of Bullitt County, said. "That's how many people are moving in here."
Right now, $66 million in federal and state funding is being invested in construction and more is projected to flow in.
"Through 2030 there will be $352 million spent in Bullitt County," Griffee said. "To be honest with you we're going to need more."
Officials are looking toward a future where drivers will no longer have to merge into a single lane.
"By the end of 2028 this county... it will have adequate transportation and infrastructure," Summers said. "We're projected to be somewhere around 90,000 residents."
Construction will also focus on highways, like Kentucky Route 61, that run north and south of the county; making sure drivers that live in, or are traveling through, the area have other options other than Interstate 65.
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