LOUISVILLE, Ky. — We have new information on a multi-million dollar infrastructure project in Louisville. Last week, President Joe Biden specifically mentioned the 9th Street revitilization project during his stop in northern Kentucky.
People in the community are getting excited about the long-awaited improvements.
Betty Ross has called that area of Louisville home for the last 3 years. She lives near 9th street. She and her neighbors know about the massive project that’ll completely transform the street near her home.
“It’s going to be beautiful.” Betty Ross explained with a smile. “It’s going to be good for the community.”
Officials say 9th Street in downtown Louisville, also called Roy Wilkins Avenue, has pretty much become a focal point just for cars to get to the interstates and area industry. The street also creates a divide between downtown, the Russel neighborhood and West Louisville neighborhoods.
“It’s a huge thing we’ve heard through a lot of conversations we’ve had with the community. Especially some of the neighborhoods in West Louisville, that they don’t feel welcome to come into downtown,” Michael King, the director of Louisville Metro Office of Advanced Planning and Sustainability, explained to Spectrum News 1. “Also, the way it’s set up. It kind of filters you out of downtown as soon as you get here. A lot of it is the result of urban renewal policies that happened back in the 60s and 70s.”
A project document says this takes a major step toward healing past injustices and racial segregation by removing a physical barrier that represents the divide between Louisville’s Black neighborhoods and the rest of the city.
King explained, “It was a huge priority for the Mayor Fischer administration. It’s a very high priority for the Mayor Greenberg administration. It’s something we’ve been trying to undo a lot of these wrongs that happened back in the 60s and 70s. This is one of the biggest shining examples of things that were done incorrectly. In our eyes, as Metro Government, it’s a tremendous opportunity.”
For years, King and other leaders worked with the community to create a vision. Last year, we told you about the project called Reimagine 9th Street. The project runs along 9th Street from roughly Main Street down to Broadway. It’ll have narrower lanes to slow down cars, improved pedestrian crossings and dedicated bus lanes. Plus better sidewalks, bicycle facilities and community green spaces.
Through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s RAISE program, more than $15.5 million in federal money will fund the expansive project.
“We’re working right now, this funding comes though the Federal Highway Administration,” King said. “So, we’re working with them on basically the agreements that then allow us to then accept those funds. As soon as we’re able to do that, then we’ll look to start bringing consultants and other design professionals on board for the first phase of the project,” he explained.
Ross sounds excited by the project. “It’s going to brighten up everything,” she exclaimed. “Where we can just get around. Our stores are going to be here where we can just get to them and everything.”
King said once the agreements are finalized, that’s when the timeline starts to get the project going.
The hope is to get the 9th Street agreements signed in the coming weeks. Then the project can kick into high gear.