Good Question: Why are there wooden guard rails on US 68 from Paris to Lexington?

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - It’s a road thousands of our viewers drive every day, and one of them had a question about why it looks the way it does.

For today’s Good Question, Keith asks, Why are there wooden guard rails on the road from Paris to Lexington on U.S. 68?

That road is also known as Paris Pike and the widening project that transformed it from a two-lane road to the four lanes it is today took decades to finalize.

Construction started in 1997 and the construction plans were required to maintain the historic character of the corridor. That included moving some stone fences by hand, and using wooden guard rails, instead of metal ones.

Natasha Lacy with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet told us, “KYTC constructed the wooden guardrail as part of the Paris Pike Widening Project as a mitigation element for impacting the historic properties along Paris Pike/US 68.”

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