Bardstown Road reconfiguration in Louisville heads to KYTC's Nov. 19 letting

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet will take bids Nov. 19, 2026 on a project to reconfigure 1.40 miles of Bardstown Road (US 31E) in Louisville, according to KYTC's Notice to Contractors.

Call 102, contract 261524, is described in the notice as "roadway reconfiguration and implementation of access management features on US 31E, a distance of 1.40 miles." The work type is listed as asphalt surface with grade and drain. The DBE participation goal is 0.00%.

A safety-program project

The project number is HSIP 1501 (132). HSIP is the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program, which funds projects meant to reduce serious crashes. The SYP item number is 05-09047.00; KYTC District 5 is the district office that covers Jefferson County.

"Access management" generally refers to controlling where and how vehicles enter and leave a road, for example by consolidating driveways, adding medians or restricting turns. "Reconfiguration" can mean changing the number or arrangement of lanes. The notice does not say which measures this project includes or where on Bardstown Road the 1.40 miles fall. Those details are in the plans, and this site has not reviewed them. Readers should not assume a particular design until KYTC or Louisville officials describe it.

What the notice does say about bidding

• Contractors must register for each project, and KYTC accepts registration only from contractors prequalified in the project's work categories.
• Registration closes at 3:00 p.m. the day before the letting.
• Bids are received electronically through Bid Express until 10:00 a.m. on Nov. 19.
• After the opening, bids are posted with the engineer's estimate on KYTC's website and on Bid Express.
• Plans are requested through kytcplanroom.com.

Local contractors

Jefferson County has 25 KYTC-prequalified contractors with addresses there on this site's directory, second only to Fayette County's 30. The Jefferson County hub lists them, along with every open KYTC contract in the county.

Subcontracting

A corridor reconfiguration on an urban arterial usually involves milling and paving, pavement markings, curb and median work, drainage adjustments, signing, signal modifications and maintenance of traffic. Pavement-marking and traffic-control firms in particular tend to have a large share of the work on lane reconfiguration projects. Subcontractors can find the primes that have registered on KYTC's eligible bidders list once it is posted for the letting.

Also in the region

Oldham County, next to Jefferson, has call 200 on the same letting: work at the I-71 rest area, with jointed plain concrete pavement on a 0.25-mile northbound truck area segment and a 0.47-mile segment the notice describes as "I-71 Rest Area-Water." Its federal project number is NHPP 0711(131).

What's next

This site will post the results for call 102 after the Nov. 19 opening, including the low bid and the engineer's estimate. Every open KYTC contract is on our bids page.

How to bid

KYTC's notice spells out the rules. Contractors must register for each project they intend to bid, using the bidder registration form on the Division of Construction Procurement website, and the department "will only accept bidder registration forms from contractors who are prequalified in the work categories of the particular project." Registration closes at 3:00 p.m. on the day before the letting. Bids are received electronically through Bid Express until 10:00 a.m. on letting day. Plans are requested through KYTC's plan room at kytcplanroom.com, and the department notes those requests are non-refundable.

After the bids are opened, the division reviews them and posts them, along with the engineer's estimate, on its website and on Bid Express. The division's site also carries the eligible bidders list, unit bid tabulations, average unit bid prices, an asphalt price index and the DBE directories.