Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

While work is progressing on the 1.5-mile section of U.S. 421 at the Kentucky line to Cranks, it’s time for state officials to approve funding for the remaining 1.8 miles that weren’t finished several years ago. This would complete the 13-mile U.S. 421 expansion from Grays Knob to the Virginia line that began in 1999 under the Paul Patton administration and stopped three miles short of its completion in 2004.
State Sen. Scott Madon said last week that he had requested information from the state transportation department on the cost of completing the last section of the road.
“I got the number back on that project today — $18 million,” Madon said Friday. “I am requesting that it be put in the road plan.”
Gov. Andy Beshear promised to complete the remaining 3.3 miles of the project when he was campaigning for office in 2019.
“It is going to be a priority in my administration, and I’m committed to getting the final three miles of 421 completed in a Beshear administration. I’m committed to Harlan County, and I recognize the importance of good roads to economic development,” Beshear said in a phone interview with this reporter during his campaign before he was first elected. “For a county that I believe has been ignored by (the previous administration), I want to make sure Harlan County has a seat at the table.”
“Completing this section of highway construction is something Harlan County leadership has advocated and pushed for over the last 20 years and through four different governors since Paul Patton completed the section from Grays Knob to Barn Branch at Cranks. I’m thankful it’s finally getting started back. It’s important for safety, economic, and tourism reasons. I’m grateful to Governor Beshear, Representative Adam Bowling and Senator (Johnnie) Turner for helping get this project to a design build phase,” said Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley at the time. “Transportation Cabinet District 11 Chief District Engineer Chris Jones presented an incredible plan to address the most dangerous section of the final three miles. I appreciate his ingenuity with this project and am excited to see ground broke soon. Now that this is moving forward, it will help Virginia leaders make the case on their side of the state line to address road needs on in to Pennington Gap. This is truly great for Harlan County.”
Jones said in 2023 that only half of the project has been funded to this point.
“The only project currently listed in the current highway plan for this specific area is on U.S. 421 from mile point 1.5 to the Virginia state line,” he said. “We have asked the interested parties to evaluate the entire 3.3-mile section back to the terminus of the previous widening and make recommendations depending on the current available funding.  We will continue to evaluate projects through our Strategic Highway Investment Formula for Tomorrow (SHIFT) program for the upcoming highway plan in 2024 working with the governor and legislators to determine additional projects.”
The cost of the work increased after funding was approved, leaving only enough money to complete 1.5 miles to eliminate the dangerous curve near the state line. I’ve been told by at least one person with experience in road projects that if the work isn’t completed now, meaning the final 1.8 miles to connect with the previous construction, it may never be finished.
“If we don’t get it now we will never get it,” he said. “The contractor is on site, and it costs thousands of dollars to move equipment. It’s a design build and the designers already are under contract. It you come back in three years, you have to hire a new design company.”
It’s the time to finish the rest of the project while the work is ongoing. It is what the governor promised several years ago. Many local residents didn’t believe Beshear when he said the road would be completed before his first election. Many pointed out he hadn’t lived up to his promise when he ran for a second term. Harlan Countians have heard the excuses for decades from governors and legislators who approve millions for roads in other counties while Harlan County waited and fell farther behind.
Completing the road while the workers are there now is the logical solution. Harlan Countians have been passed up and ignored for decades. It’s time to do the right thing while everything is in place to finally complete a project that began over a quarter century ago.