Wednesday, March 23, 2016 3:20 pm

New interchange proposed to cut accidents, speed traffic flow.

Anyone who has ever been to Paducah knows about the US 60 on/off ramp for I-24. That's the one that leads to Kentucky Oaks Mall and the strip of restaurants and businesses west of Paducah. It is an exit that is guaranteed to cause back ups on the Interstate around holidays like the one coming up.

It's been the site of many rear end and angle collisions. Drivers along the Interstate don't expect traffic to come to a standstill in the right lane - which it does when there are 36,000 cars trying to get off and on US 60.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet held a public meeting on March 22^nd to discuss a solution - install a Double Crossover Diamond (DCD) interchange. The interchange will allow traffic to move out of the moving right lane of the interstate when exiting. Forty members of the public showed up at the meeting to look over and comment on the plan.

Kentucky first put in a DCD at the Harrodsburg Road and New Circle Road interchange in 2011. The original interchange resembled a high dive into murky waters. The new interchange allows a smooth entry into the flow of traffic. After installation, crashes were reduced by 40% and queues were reduced by half.

Construction of the Double Crossover Diamond is expected to take up to five months and cost around $6.1 million.

Getting us all to the bookstore and the mall during holiday shopping times will make this government money well spent.