If you’ve been on Main Street in the last few weeks, you must have noticed something major going on between Broadway and Lexington Avenue. Work on the Main Street High Side Project finally began in April. First, all the steps and most of the sidewalk on the High Side of Main were removed. The next tasks were relocating utilities, followed by pouring concrete walls.
This sidewalk improvement project is causing disruption to businesses on Main Street. However, the High Side is in need of modernization, and this is a project for the future of Winchester. According to the city’s website, “The project will provide many benefits to the community, including access for all users, improved safety, mobility, business enhancement, historic enhancement, support of downtown activities, beautification and a destination area.”
This is the first of a series of articles reporting on the progress of the High Side Project. I thought it might be helpful for readers to begin with the steps taken to get to this point.
In January 2016, CityVisions Associates of Louisville was engaged to prepare a Downtown Master Plan for Winchester. The work was funded by the City, County, and the Clark Community Foundation. The Master Plan was delivered in October 2017.
In October 2018, the City issued a Request for Proposals to design improvements for the High Side of Main Street. The City Commission selected Palmer Engineering to provide engineering services for the project in March 2019. Due to the COVID pandemic, the project was put on hold from January 2020 until January 2022.
In November 2022, the City Commission approved the fee proposal submitted by Palmer Engineering in the amount of $256,000 for the High Side Project. Public meetings on the project were held in December 2022 and May 2023; comments were compiled and incorporated into the design.
In August 2023, the City applied for funding from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. The funding request was for $4.4 million, with $1.1 million cost sharing by the City. The application was approved in October 2023. The award comes from federal funds provided through the Local Technical Assistance Program.
The Transportation Cabinet approved Palmer’s final design for the project, and the City and the Cabinet signed a Memorandum of Agreement in February 2025. A request for bids was advertised that month, and in March, the City awarded the construction contract to the Allen Company, which submitted the low bid of $3.49 million. The High Side Project is scheduled for completion by November 1, 2025.
