[Stardust]

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/shiftinggear...-speedway/

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet received five bids for a project near Kentucky Speedway designed to help ease traffic congestion and improve access to parking areas around the track.

The project includes widening the ramp off of southbound Interstate 71 at Ky. 35 and more than a half-mile of Ky. 35 north of the exit as well as building a pedestrian tunnel beneath Ky. 35 to link a new parking area with the speedway.

Each of the bids opened Friday came in below the $3.9 million state engineer’s estimate, according to the letting results posted on the cabinet’s website. Sunesis Construction, of West Chester, Ohio, was the low bidder at $3.7 million.

The state wants the project finished by May 25, and will charge the contractor $10,000 for every day after May 25 that the work is not done, according to the project proposal. Additional fees will apply if the work is not finished by June 1 ($25,000 per day), June 8 ($100,000 per day) and June 15 ($150,000 per day).

Kentucky Speedway’s first race next season is a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race June 28. The event is part of a tripleheader race weekend that also will include a Nationwide Series race June 29 and the Quaker State 400 for the Sprint Cup Series on June 30.

The significant traffic and parking problems experienced during July’s inaugural Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway prompted Speedway Motorsports Inc., the company that owns the Gallatin County track, to invest $7.5 million to fix the problems.

The company bought 142 acres across Ky. 35 from the track and will use the land as a parking area capable of accommodating an estimated 10,000 cars. It also hired a new company to manage parking and a traffic engineering company to draw up a new traffic management plan.

The state planned to spend an estimated $3.6 million for the road improvements and tunnel construction with the money coming from the Transportation Cabinet’s contingency fund.

Cabinet officials could hold a preconstruction meeting with Sunesis representatives in early December if nothing holds up the process, cabinet spokeswoman Nancy Wood said Tuesday.

“That’s when they come here to the district office, give us their schedule of when they’re planning on starting, their timeline,” she said. “We meet and put faces to faces and make sure they know the numbers to call and we know the numbers to call, who’s the supervisor and all of that stuff. Then they can start work.”