City of Bowling Green set to apply for grant to help with Russellville Road improvements

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – On Tuesday, the Bowling Green City Commission approved an application for a grant that will help with a potential road project that’s been years in the making, over on Russellville Road.

“This is the fourth time now that we have applied for this grant under several names. We applied for it two times when it was the RAISE program. We’ve applied for it once before on the BUILD program, and this is our fourth time. The reason we’re going again is because when our grant staff was able to talk to their program staff after our previous submission, they told us that out of the eight merit criteria, we had high marks in seven out of those eight categories. We just couldn’t leave this one alone. If we’re that close to being funded, we needed to take things back to the drawing board, take another swing,” Jake Moore, the Grants Coordinator for the City of Bowling Green, says.

Moore stresses this is just an application to get the design process going. No construction timeline has been set yet. However, one of their top priorities with this improvement project is the railroad bridge between the University Boulevard and Morgantown Road intersections on Russellville Road.

There are currently no sidewalks in sight going under the bridge past Muse Apartments, and with Western Kentucky University nearby, that’s a top concern of not just citizens, but students as well.

“It’s a problem area. It’s an area of need. It’s operating at incredibly high capacity in the morning peak hours as well as evening peak hours. There’s been several pedestrian and vehicle collisions in that area… and you kind of have to go through there in order to access campus and other amenities. It’s kind of a bottleneck for pedestrians. There’s also just general traffic congestion at all hours of the day. That’s not a super fun stretch of road to drive through during rush hour,” Moore says.

A survey was put out to residents in the area, and this plan (which would also include roundabouts at the two intersections and replacing the bridge while widening the road) was the best one.

“That way, it’s less of a bottleneck, and there’s more freedom of movement under the bridge… and pedestrians don’t have to worry as much about oncoming traffic, being elbow to elbow with traffic so to speak,” Moore says.

So why now? Moore says it’s because of the growth we’re seeing in Bowling Green.

“This would be huge for the city and for the cabinet and for Western Kentucky University to provide a little bit of relief from the congestion that’s felt along the road,” Moore says.

The City of Bowling Green is set to hear back on whether its received this grant in June.

News 40 will keep you updated as we learn more.