The state has budgeted money for design work to replace the closed-off arch structure on East Water Street, seen Wednesday,, Aug. 21, 2019, in Glasgow.

A well-known tunnel in downtown Glasgow that was closed due to safety concerns is a step closer to being replaced.

Joe Plunk, District 3 chief district engineer of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, announced at the Aug. 12 meeting of the Glasgow City Council that the tunnel on East Water Street has been budgeted for design work in the state highway plan.

According to Plunk, the tunnel, which is technically a “masonry arch structure,” rather than a true tunnel, is more than a century old.

“This structure has deficiencies that showed up about 15 years ago,” he said. “It was at the end of its useful life. It was constructed in 1914. Water infiltrates through the roadway, into the masonry.”

According to Plunk, KYTC inspects structures like the tunnel every two years and decided in 2015 to close it due to safety concerns.

“Stones started coming out of the roof of the structure so we closed it,” he said.

The tunnel covers a part of East Water Street, and North Race Street crosses over it.

The section of North Race that goes over the tunnel is still open and, according to Plunk, is driven on by some 10,000 vehicles a day.

KYTC District 3 spokesman Wes Watt, when reached by the Daily News, said North Race is still safe for motorists because it is a separate structure that was built later than the tunnel.

“The way it’s constructed, the roadway that goes over the tunnel is a separate construction from the tunnel itself,” he said.

Watt said the estimated cost of the full replacement project is expected to be between $1.1 million and $1.2 million and that funds for the design and environmental phases, nearly $218,000, are in place in the state highway plan.

Though the new tunnel will be modernized and is expected to have a higher clearance when finished, it will maintain the early 20th century aesthetics the current structure is known for, Watt said.

“It’ll have a newer function but an old-timey feel and look,” he said. “It was important to the community to maintain the look of that structure as much as possible.”

The unusual positioning of the tunnel is expected to cause the replacement to be somewhat slow when the project gets going, Watt said.

The project will involve working around a building belonging to retired surgeon Bharat Mody that is positioned on a separate structure adjacent to the tunnel, he said.

“It’s certainly going to be a delicate process and a time-consuming process,” Watt said.

The project’s construction phase is currently not funded, Watt said, though he added that replacement of the structure would not begin until the end of 2020 at the earliest.

“That is the best-case scenario,” he said. “A lot of things have to fall in place for that to happen.”