More than 200 people showed up Thursday for a public meeting to discuss plans for a new Natcher Parkway interchange with Elrod Road.

“That shows that there is a lot of support and interest in this project,” said Jeff Moore, branch manager for planning at the state Division of Highways in Bowling Green.

Kim Cook lives on Herman Avenue, which is off Elrod Road. She travels Elrod every day to Western Kentucky University’s Agriculture Exposition Center where the meeting was held.

“The road is horrible,” Cook said of Elrod.

Cook said she does some traveling that requires her to use the Natcher Parkway for which she needs to drive down Nashville Road to enter. That is something many people do, creating heavy traffic on the road that is awaiting widening.

Terry Price, who lives on Elrod Road, said a new interchange should help relieve some of that Nashville Road traffic and make for shorter trips around town.

Cook said she can see her house from the Natcher Parkway but has to “drive around” to get to it. When an Elrod interchange is built, that will be much more convenient.

“The only concern I have is how long it will take to get built and how much mess it will be to get it in,” she said. “I hope they try to get it built quickly.”

But even at a fast pace, it would take 10 years before construction could be mostly under way, Moore said.

There were quite a few gasps in the meeting room Thursday when that timeline flashed on a screen.

Many of the people in attendance were looking forward to seeing the project advance quicker, including a large contingent from Holy Spirit Catholic Church that will start building a new facility in the study area within a year.

Church Parish Council member Michelle Thomas asked how the connections to roads in the study area would be improved in each of four design scenarios being considered for an interchange.

But consultant Karen L. Mohammadi said it is too early to say how that will work. That kind of information should come to the public in late May.

Mohammadi said the main purpose of meeting now was to hear about residents’ concerns and potential roadblocks to the project.

“So that we won’t have to go back and redesign the road,” she said.

A draft environmental overview of the area, which encompasses Smallhouse Road to the north, halfway to the U.S. 31-W interchange to the west, Dillard Road/Neal Howell Road to the south, and Three Springs Road to the east, already pointed to sinkholes, wetlands, cemetery and churches and a summer home for Indiana bats, Mohammadi said.

Chris Kummer, assistant director of Warren County Parks, was at the meeting to see how the project might impact Basil Griffin Park on Three Springs Road.

Moore said many people questioned why the new interchange with Natcher couldn’t be with Three Springs Road.

“I guess we haven’t done a very good job communicating that answer,” he said.

Moore explained privately and to the group that such an interchange would be too close to Natcher’s interchange with Interstate 65 and Three Springs crossover of I-65. The other reason is that it would impact the park.

“Parks are hands off, particularly when there is federal money involved,” he said.

And while the interchange won’t impact park land, it could impact park traffic.

“It could help get our families to and from the park,” Kummer said.

It also could provide more access to the Aviation Heritage Park that is being developed at the park, he said.

“The general concern is that this is a fast-growing area, with the potential for a new elementary school, Holy Spirit Church and other things coming,” Moore said.

And people want to see the roads accommodate that growth.

The new high school and middle school planned for the Rich Pond area off Nashville Road also will have some impact in the study area, he said.

Helen and Albert Skees live where the new schools will be constructed.

“I think that this area of the county is really beginning to grow and the roads need to keep up with it,” Albert Skees said.

Skees said he couldn’t understand why the state didn’t plan to continue widening Nashville Road in the vicinity of the new school.

Moore said Nashville Road’s widening has been planned in phases but that section hasn’t been scheduled.

Most people at the meeting said they had heard of no one against the project, with concerns mostly about the timeline.

Keirsten Jaggers, public information officer for the Department of Highways, milled around the tables as residents talked to project experts.

“A lot of them were concerned about what would be done to existing infrastructure to accommodate the traffic that would come with an interchange,” she said. “And a lot of people talked about the straight stretch on Elrod about excessive speeding.”

Comments made at the public meeting and those sent to the Division of Highway at Elrod@gspnet.com or 781-7020 will be considered in the planning study that will take about a year. Moore cautions people that no funding has been garnered to go past the study phase. Cobbling together that funding will take some work since it involves state, city and county governments, he said.

The state is having another public meeting Feb. 20 about plans to reconstruct Three Springs Road from Scottsville Road to Flealand. This project also would have an impact on the Elrod Road interchange, Moore said.

The project will involve five-laning the road and installing, curb, gutter and sidewalks. Comment sheets and displays about the project will be available from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Drakes Creek Middle School, 704 Cypress Wood Lane.

In other road matters, as part of the widening of I-65, crews will begin the demolition of the Ky. 240 overpass on Monday. The work is expected to take 90 days. A detour route using Matlock Road and Ky. 242 will be set up and signed during this time.

— To send you comments about the Elrod Road project or to get more information e-mail Elrod@gspnet.com or call 781-7020. Anyone wanting a survey about the project should contact Keirsten Jaggers or Deneatra Hack at the district office at 746-7898.