Kentucky begins 8664 study

Contract terminated days before completion

Louisville, KY - In response to 8664's Open Records Request on July 15, 2008, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet ("KYTC") released documents revealing a contract with transportation consulting firm Wilbur Smith Associates to develop, review and present findings from a traffic study of the 8664 Plan. The agreement signed on February 13th, 2008, established a "not to exceed" cost of $49,922.25 and a completion date of March 18th.

On March 10th, KYTC Engineer Scott Thomson abruptly cancelled the study in an email stating, "We have received word to stop immediately any further work."

According to Ann Stansel, the KYTC's Records Custodian, the agreement ended before a final report was prepared and therefore no report or raw data was accepted by the Transportation Cabinet. Therefore, no additional information from the report was available when 8664 filed a subsequent Open Records Requests on August 11, 2008.

8664 Co-Founder Tyler Allen said, "We heard lawmakers in the 2008 Special Session stress that the Bridges Project was becoming less viable. They talked about a "Plan B," so we decided to file an open records request to see if they had explored any alternatives. Sure enough, they started looking at the 8664 alternative, but for some reason they decided not to finish the study."

According to Wilbur Smith Associates' invoice #524261 dated June 25, KYTC owes the consultant $46,267.94 for completing 92.68% of the 8664 study.

Co-Founder JC Stites said, "If Governor Beshear is serious about his 'Practical Solutions' initiative to reduce road project costs, there is no better place to start than the $4.1 Billion Bridges Project. Finishing the 8664 study for $3,654.31 to save $2 Billion is a clear no-brainer."

8664 has written a letter to Governor Beshear and copied Secretary of Transportation Joseph Prather asking that the State finish the 8664 study and release findings and offering financial and engineering support.