One Year Later, New Interchange Reduces Crashes

It's been a little more than a year since a new double crossover diamond interchange was opened on US Highway 60 in Paducah's mall area, and crashes and injuries in the area are down significantly.

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Public Information Officer Keith Todd says a recent data analysis shows crashes are down about 41 percent, and there has been an 83 percent decrease in injuries over the one-year period since the interchange opened last August compared to the year before construction began.

Todd said the year the interchange was under construction was excluded due to the fact that work zones and changing traffic patterns tend to create opportunities for additional crashes.

In all, there were 64 crashes and 12 injuries from Aug. 2017 to Aug. 2018. There were 38 crashes and two reported injuries from Aug. 2019 to Aug. 2020.

"The double diamond crossover is doing what it's supposed to do in terms of safety, and of course one of the reasons we put it in was because it also moves more traffic," Todd said." "It can move about a third more traffic with fewer traffic signal phases. Then it also improves safety, because it essentially eliminates left turns. It turns all of your left turns into the equivalent of a right turn, so that you're not having to cross oncoming traffic."

Although the new interchange has done exactly what engineers had hoped according to Todd, there is still work left to do in the area. Todd said many of the recent crashes have been due to drivers not yielding correctly on the eastbound I-24 Exit 4 entry ramp. He says there are plans to help alleviate these issues in the future.

"We have a project in planning to extend the merge zone at the top of the eastbound entry ramp.  It will require widening of the Perkins Creek before the acceleration lane can be extended. In recent months we’ve had some lane restrictions in this area for survey work to provide data points to aid with planning and design work." He said.

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