Reconstructed Friendship Road opening today, ahead of schedule

The reconstructed section of North Friendship Road between US 45 and US 62 in McCracken County is expected to reopen to traffic today.

North Friendship Road has been closed since May 30 to allow for the reconstruction, which includes realignment of curves, the addition of a center turn lane and a multi-use trail. The project created a new connecting point to Lone Oak Road that allows for additional turn lanes.

The target completion date for the Phase I project was November of 2024. A complete closure of the roadway allowed Jim Smith Contracting to complete Phase I in a single construction season instead of two.

"By closing North Friendship Road to all traffic during construction, workers that would normally be assigned to flagging traffic were able to work on the project," said KYTC Chief Engineer Kyle Poat. "Rather than disrupt traffic over two construction seasons, we were able to accelerate construction to cut the timeline in half."

Construction along the existing roadway and newly-terrained section included a multi-use trail, cement treatment of the roadway base, completion of connections to the existing roadway at each end of the project, connections to existing side roads and paving. 

This phase is the first step to eventually provide a new connection to US 60 near McCracken County High School. Future plans include extending KY 1286 to create a new connection with U.S. 60 near the Menards store, west of the Kentucky Oaks Mall retail area.

The roadway normally carries about 12,000 vehicles a day.

Photos, a map and a drive-through video of the new road is online at the KYTC Facebook page .