Pikeville Cut-Through facts for kids
The Pikeville Cut-Through is a massive man-made rock cut located in Pikeville, Kentucky. Builders finished this huge project in 1987. It is one of the largest civil engineering projects ever completed in the Western Hemisphere. Workers moved an incredible amount of earth and stone to carve a wide pathway directly through a mountain.
Today, this giant passage carries several important transportation routes side by side. It includes a four-lane divided highway that carries U.S. Route 23, US 119, US 460, and KY 80. This highway system forms part of Corridor B in the Appalachian Development Highway System. The cut also holds a major railroad line operated by CSX, known as the Big Sandy Subdivision. In addition to roads and trains, the entire Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River flows right through it.
Why Did Engineers Build the Pikeville Cut-Through?
Before the project began, the mountain town of Pikeville faced several major problems. The downtown area sat tightly inside a sharp loop of the Levisa Fork. Whenever heavy rains fell in the mountains, the river overflowed its banks. These floods regularly caused serious damage to homes and businesses across the town.
At the same time, heavy freight trains carrying coal ran directly through the middle of town every day. These trains caused serious traffic jams and spread messy coal dust all over the neighborhood. Downtown streets were trapped between steep hills, leaving very little flat room for the community to grow.
In 1960, a local leader named Dr. William Hambley came up with an ambitious idea. He suggested moving the busy railroad tracks away from the heart of town. Pikeville soon received a federal grant to see if the plan was possible. The town was also accepted into the Model Cities Program, which helped provide extra money. Officials soon realized they could solve multiple problems at once by cutting through Peach Orchard Mountain. This big cut would move the trains, redirect the highway, and reroute the flooding river away from downtown.
How the Huge Mountain Channel Was Carved
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took charge of designing and building the enormous cut. The final opening measures about 1,300 feet (400 m) wide, 3,700 feet (1.1 km) long, and 523 feet (159 m) deep. Over the course of the project, workers moved nearly 18,000,000 cubic yards (14,000,000 m3) of rock and dirt. The total effort took fourteen years of hard work and cost around $77.6 million.
Engineers divided the massive project into four main phases:
- Phase I: Starting in November 1973, workers blasted nearly 13,000,000 cubic yards (9,900,000 m3) of solid rock from Peach Orchard Mountain. This created the massive pathway needed for the river, highway, and trains.
- Phase II: Beginning in March 1980, workers removed the old railroad tracks from the center of town. They rerouted the river through the mountain channel and filled in the old riverbed. This phase created 240 acres (0.97 km2) of new, usable ground for the city.
- Phase III and Phase IV: Starting in March 1983, crews built new bridges, highway interchanges, and protective flood walls. They also built Hambley Boulevard right where the old tracks used to run, opening up another 150 acres (0.61 km2) of useful land.
The entire project was officially dedicated on October 2, 1987. By moving a mountain, the people of Pikeville ended their dangerous flooding problems and created a modern center for travel.
