Louisville's 'Reimagine 9th Street' project on course to be finished in 2028

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The city is on course to transform the 9th Street corridor from Broadway to Main Street.

The project has been in the works for nearly 10 years and, in 2022, received a federal grant to help fund the construction. The project was even mentioned by President Joe Biden during his northern Kentucky visit in 2023.

Thursday, neighbors got their first look at the updated plan. The conversion is designed to slow traffic down and spur growth, not just along the street but in west Louisville.

HDR Engineering is the firm leading the redesign.

"This is a project that looks at making the corridor safer and beneficial to all users," Ameerah Palacios, with HDR, said. "As a community, we've been talking about the 'Ninth Street Divide' my entire life."

The event was held at Louisville Central Community Centers on West Muhammad Ali, near 13th Street, in the Russell neighborhood. LCCC's president and CEO, Kevin Fields, has been looking forward to this day. He said 9th Street was very different growing up.

"It was more of a neighborhood feel," Fields said. "It wasn't as if you were crossing a divided highway."

Fields remembers the neighborhood back when it was a thriving Black-owned business community, but government programs such as urban renewal led to its downfall.

"They happened due to intentional policies that were aimed to work against Black prosperity," he said.

Ninth Street, also known as Roy Wilkins Avenue, is also surrounded by one-way streets, many of which were designed around the 1960s and 1970s.

"And as a result, we basically built an infrastructure system that was built for cars and to get people in and out of the community downtown as quick as possible," Michael King, the director of Louisville Metro Planning, said.

As part of the $25 million project, Muhammad Ali Boulevard (formerly Walnut Street) and Chestnut Street will be converted from one-way into two-way. The work will stretch from 9th Street to Shawnee Park.

"We've heard countless stories of businesses and churches and residents, and everything in between, having close calls or getting hit by cars because they're built for people to go so fast," King said. "The two-way conversion will slow them down. It improves the connectivity."

Fields said these conversions will help create a better climate for entrepreneurs.

"These are neighborhood streets," he said. "They're not meant to be driven that fast in a non-stop way."

But not everyone in west Louisville is on board with this part of the plan.

De'Nita Wright, with the Coalition of West Louisville Neighborhood Associations, said she and other members feel that the city has not listened to their concerns about parking. Many of the homes in west Louisville do not have driveways, so they rely on street parking.

"If you're coming into the residential area, then provide for the residents," Wright, who lives in Chickasaw, said. "The main primary thing is will residential parking be available as it is now?"

She said the city did not do enough to get input from neighbors up to this point.

"I see 'people-first' in there (Reimagine Ninth Street), but it's pedestrians," Wright said. "There are people that have cars that have to get back and forth to their jobs. You have to make provisions for the cars."

King told WDRB News that this design does not take away any legal parking spots. He added that they do plan to hold a meeting with neighbors directly impacted before the two-way plans are finalized.

Councilman Phillip Baker, D-6, went to Central High School, which is on Chestnut, said he supports the redesigns but adds that the neighbors' concerns will be heard.

"The work doesn't stop here," Baker said. "That's why these meetings are important, and making sure their voices are heard."

The city expects to start construction on the two-way conversions by early 2025.

The final design for 9th Street is expected by May 2026, with construction beginning that August. City officials said the project could be finished by August 2028.

To read more about the project, click here.

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