Work begins Thursday
A state transportation cabinet project at the juncture of U.S. 41 and Wolf Hills Road/Stratman Road is expected to significantly reduce crashes there, said the District 2 spokesperson for the cabinet.
But it may take some getting used to by local drivers.
Matt Hughes, the District 2 spokesperson, said the restricted crossing U-turns, or RCUTs, are designed specifically to make left turns from Stratman Road onto U.S. 41-North and from Wolf Hills Road onto U.S. 41-South much safer.
Construction on the $4-million project begins Thursday and is expected to last through mid-October, Hughes said.
A video from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (see at the bottom of this article) says that RCUTs relieve the driver of having to see traffic coming from the left, oncoming and from the right when making a left turn.
Instead, motorists will only need to look in one direction at a time—not three—when completing the turn with the RCUTs in place.
To start the turn, drivers will look at traffic coming from their left, and when clear, turn right—from Wolf Hills onto U.S. 41-North or from Stratman Road onto U.S. 41-South.
Then they will move all the way into the off lane that is located to the left of the passing lane and leads to the U-turn area.
While sitting in the U-turn area, drivers will only look right and merge into traffic when the lane is clear.
Hughes said an RCUT installed at a juncture on U.S. 68 in Trigg County has reduced traffic accidents there by 64%. He said there have also been 71% less injuries since the RCUT was installed. Nationwide, statistics reveal that RCUTs have reduced crashes by 54% at accident-prone sites, Hughes said.
He said that when he first drove up to the Trigg County RCUT he was a bit confused but once he drove through it, he understood the concept.
“Once you drive through it, it makes complete sense,” Hughes said.
Hughes said there will be some lane closures during construction but said crews will attempt to keep all lanes open during high-traffic times. He said they will attempt to do work requiring lane closures during low-traffic times and at night.
According to the KYTC, the intersection of U.S. 41 and Wolf Hills Road/Stratman Road has recorded a higher-than-normal number of fatal and serious injury crashes during the last five years. Additionally, the cabinet says there were 94 crashes at the juncture between 2019 and 2022, and five of those resulted in serious injury or death.
On average, around 1,200 vehicles exit Wolf Hills Road onto U.S. 41 daily, with another 600 coming from Stratman Road, said the cabinet.
The Henderson RCUT will be the second in western Kentucky. A third will be built on U.S. 60 in Owensboro with a scheduled completion in 2026, according to media reports.
