LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Thousands of Nelson County drivers will notice changes in downtown Bardstown, as crews work on a pair of roundabouts.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said there needed to be a consistent design for traffic patterns, so engineers are making changes to the town square and another intersection.
"We've had it the same way, well, forever," Brandie Morrison, the owner of All About You Hair & Nail Salon, said. "I think it's going to take time for people to get used to it."
The roundabouts to the left and right of All About You Hair & Nail Salon are the talk of the town.
"I'm a little concerned just because I've lived here my whole life, and it's going to be very confusing," Morrison said.
One of the projects is a roundabout right in front of the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral. It's brand new and under construction. It's transforming from a three way stop with signs.
A new roundabout is under construction in front of St. Joseph Church in Bardstown, Ky. The previous intersection had three stop signs. (WDRB Image by Molly Jett) Aug. 24, 2023
The other has always been near the Bardstown courthouse square. The courthouse circle is the traffic layout KYTC is modifying, changing signs and adding extra striping to make Bardstown's courthouse square a true roundabout configuration. Cars entering the square on the roundabout will soon have to yield to any traffic already in the circle.
"To me, that will be more confusing, maybe more than the new one because you're just kind of a creature of habit, when you are kind of used to doing it the same way," Morrison said.
The goal of any roundabout is to increase safety for drivers and pedestrians by maintaining traffic flow without stop signs and traffic lights. But two roundabouts in Bardstown had two different traffic plans in place, so changes are being made to make them consistent.
"Anytime there are changes that you know, at a major intersection like that there's a learning curve and we expect that but at the same time, we know the end result should be an improvement," Chris Jessie, who is the public affairs officer at the Elizabethtown location Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, said.
Two blocks separate the two roundabouts. KYTC says the 2022 traffic count for the large roundabout by the church has about 18,000 vehicles on it a day. The roundabout in the courthouse square sees about 15,000 vehicles a day.
"We're again doing that so that those two features so close together are consistent that drivers aren't doing one thing one place and one thing another," Jessie said. "It's not a very costly thing to adjust. So it just made perfect sense to do, making strikes less, less frequent or less possible."
Morrison hopes the change helps her salon.
A new roundabout is under construction in front of St. Joseph Church in Bardstown, Ky. The previous intersection had three stop signs. (WDRB Image by Molly Jett) Aug. 24, 2023
"We had a lot of wrecks out front and most the time the racks ended up in my parking lot. I don't have a huge lawn as it is, so it would be nice if it helps the flow of the traffic," Morrison said. "The town is growing so much due to the bourbon industry. I feel like, you know, we just got to patient."
The roundabout by the church won't be finished for a while, but the one by the courthouse will be changed Wednesday night. Drivers can start using the new layout starting the morning of Thursday, Aug. 31.
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