OHIO — It’s been six months since officials from Honda and LG Energy Solution broke ground on the new $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant near Jeffersonville, Ohio.

Earlier this month, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced that $6.2 million in grant funding would support Fayette County for one very crucial road called Bluegrass Boulevard that connects the entire project.

What You Need To Know

  • Progress continues around the site of the new EV battery plant in Fayette County

  • Major improvements on Bluegrass Boulevard will help connect the entire project

  • Fayette County has several projects underway that will contribute to the region's success

“Everybody is working together to make sure that it happens,” said Fayette County engineer Steve Luebbe.

Luebbe has been the county’s engineer for 25 years.

“We’re actually ahead of schedule. We’ve got a great contractor to work with and they’ve been killing it out here. I think it’s going pretty well. We should be finished by the end of the year. We promised Honda that they would have a road to use by December and we should be able to make that,” said Luebbe as he drove down Bluegrass Boulevard.

The plant is expected to bring in more than 2,000 jobs and there will be a lot of movement every day.

“What we’re coming to now, this is going to be a roundabout. It’s going to be Fayette County’s first roundabout,” said Luebbe during the drive.

Bluegrass Boulevard will eventually head up to State Route 41 to the north and State Route 435 to the south.

Luebbe says connectivity is crucial.

“It’s everything. The people have got to be able to get here. Bluegrass Boulevard will be an arterial, at some point will probably be five lanes that will parallel I-71 and open up both of those interchanges for all the businesses that are going to wind up here on the site,” he said.

Improvements being made to Bluegrass Boulevard and the plant itself are just the tip of the iceberg for Fayette County.

Millions of dollars in projects are underway.

“They’re all supposed to be done by next Fall,” said Luebbe.

The county is making improvements to a wastewater treatment plant, constructing a new water treatment plant, and adding a water tower.

A mix of grant money, loans, and usage fees will pay for the updates without the need of additional taxes.

“So overall with the roadway and the water and the sewer, we’ve got a little over $100M worth of work going on right now,” he said.

The state also has plans to do road improvements on State Route 435 along with ramp and signal updates, and even another roundabout.

“In Fayette County, there hasn’t been a lot of happenings over the last 25 years. Little bits and pieces of things, but Honda is going to change all that,” said Luebbe.

The plant is expected to be ready by late 2024.

The goal is to start mass production of advanced lithium-ion batteries by 2025.