A lot of people are looking forward to a four-lane Highway 27.

“It helps you get here and there, quicker,” says Pulaski County driver Ronald Dalton.

But Dalton says a wider road could also mean more opportunities for his small town.

“I hope it brings some business in here. Some factory jobs we don't have now. Everything has moved out and left us,” he says.

The five-mile section north of Somerset, with the opening marked by a symbolic yellow ribbon cut Friday afternoon, is a small part of a much larger goal to connect south to north.

“It’s been the goal of all these years to stretch this highway all the way to Lexington,” said Congressman Hal Rogers, R-5th District, during the ribbon cutting ceremony Friday.

“It's going to alleviate a lot of traffic coming into this area here. It's really crowded, crowded up,” says Charles Phillipe of Norwood, where the first phase of road will open to traffic Tuesday.

A highway interchange under construction near Clifty Road will one day either be a northern bypass for Somerset or Interstate 66.

Much of that controversial interstate is still only in the planning stages. Some say it's not needed. Others say it's past due.

“Well there's a lot of negative stuff with that, but they don't realize what's going on, I think,” says Phillipe.