The likelihood of an outer loop being built anytime soon is very low, according to Metropolitan Planning Organization Coordinator Tom Lovett.
“Is this a possibility? It looks like now that it probably isn’t, at least for the foreseeable future,” Lovett said.
Lovett said the project for the outer loop was to conduct a study to see how feasible it was to produce the road, and not necessarily soon.
“It was just the study to look at, does it make sense?” Lovett said. “Would it make sense sometime down the road to consider doing this?”
The study wasn’t meant to evolve into the outer loop immediately. The study was meant to gauge the land — like what some issues are in the area that need to be addressed — and then poll the county on if they would like to make the outer loop.
He compared it to taking a baking class on how to make a cake before you decide if you want to. In doing so, you aren’t guaranteeing you’d make the cake, but you have the knowledge of how to make it when you need to.
The survey results, Lovett said, are going to the surveying company. So while he hasn’t gotten to look through the results, he has received emails from the community and said he’s seen numerous objections to the loop.
So much so, they thought about ending the survey.
“I got an email [Monday morning] from the survey team — the people doing the study for us,” he said. “The response was overwhelmingly opposed to the road. So much so that they’re like, ‘Should we just go ahead and close the comment period early?’”
Some of the responses were people feeling like the MPO was trying to sneak something by them, which Lovett said is not true.
As the survey comes to a close, Lovett said the project isn’t “dead” because it was never ensured to happen.
Nonetheless, this does not rule the loop out in the future. Should Owensboro need to expand and the idea was to arise, they are able to look at this study as a starting point for where potential expansion areas are best located.
