Following a series of recommendations from Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 1 Section Supervisor Michael Oliver, Trigg County magistrates approved a five-point rural secondary road plan Monday night — which should, in time, address a number of concerns in the community.
With an undistributed balance of $179,581 from last year’s expenditures tacked on to this year’s state allocation of $1.632 million, Oliver said the fiscal court had access to roughly $1.81 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
With that, he said, should come the following:
1) Maintenance of almost 138 miles of roads at $3,600 per mile, valued at nearly $494,000;
2) A 25% reserve of county flex funds, valued at $408,000;
3) A 60-foot bridge replacement at KY 807 Donaldson Creek Road, valued at $432,000;
4) A $300,000 allocation for bridge and culvert repairs throughout the county;
And 5) a $175,000 allocation toward asphalt patching and paving at various locations outside of Cadiz.
Four other projects, Oliver said, are already underway, or soon will be:
1) A $3.2 million repaving along U.S. 68/80, from Kentucky Lake to Barkley bridges;
2) An $875,000 rework of the KY 139 and KY 124 intersection, near the former Wilson’s Grocery;
3) A 2-mile section of U.S. 68X, picking up from Bank of Cadiz;
4) And other implements needed for the KY 807 Donaldson Creek Road bridge.
Several other projects, he added, are going to gain priority sooner rather than later, as recent historic flooding washed up some concerns.
These projects include — but are not limited to — the Burge Creek Bridge on KY 272 Caledonia Road, KY 1253, and major flood zones along KY 126, KY 139 and KY 807, where Oliver noted standing water remained in several spots as of Monday night.
Burge Creek Bridge, however, being more than nine decades old, may get that attention first — because what’s in place now might only suffice for the next couple of years.
Oliver said the removal of standing water, especially on KY 139, is proving rather difficult, and for a number of reasons.
In those three trouble spots, Oliver called them “bowls,” where the water has nowhere else really to go. They cannot legally pump it onto anyone’s property without explicit permission, and he further noted that they have called several different rental pumping companies in the last few days, only to learn that the number of hoses required to move water up hills would require coordinated shipments of different-length hoses from across the country.
By the time everything would be ready to go for a major pumping operation, the water would be low enough for travel. Furthermore, Oliver posited that in future road plans, it may actually be cheaper to raise those roads 3-to-4 feet, rather than to create environmental ditches and other similar drainage devices.
Oliver also confirmed that the Little River cleanout at the West Cadiz Park is still scheduled, but obviously got sidetracked following severe flooding across the Commonwealth. A rented long-range excavator that will be used for the effort is currently needed in McCracken and Fulton counties, and should be in Cadiz “in the next seven-to-10 days.”
As for the strength of the Little River Bridge, he said its pylons had been driven “straight to bedrock,” but that the notion of “blowing the concrete underwater wall” — and perhaps freeing up more water and debris flow — would require a full agreement from the Army Corps of Engineers to make it a reality.
Magistrate Mike Wright brought this discussion to the surface.
Oliver’s full discussion can be heard here:
