The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has failed to release the 8664 traffic study and the group has asked Attorney General Jack Conway to intervene.

In late August the KYTC agreed to complete an 8664 traffic study that started in February of this year. As we reported (here & here) at the time, the Cabinet signed a $50,000 contract with engineering firm Wilbur Smith Associates to complete the study. The project was supposed to take just five weeks to complete but KYTC Secretary Joe Prather killed it a mere eight days before completion. The state was forced to pay for the 93% of the study that was already finished. Money flushed down the drain.

On August 26 the Courier-Journal reported that KYTC agreed to complete the study. As of right now, however, nothing has been done. No study has been completed. And the KYTC has egg on its face.

Governor Steve Beshear also has not responded to an 8664 letter requesting that he make the traffic study immediately available to the public.

“Something’s wrong when it takes four weeks to complete 93% of a study, but it’s taken five weeks to write a letter to authorize finishing it,” said 8664 co-founder Tyler Allen.

Since the KYTC hasn’t acted, 8664 has requested that the Office of the Attorney General push the organization’s open records request. 8664 co-founderJC Stites said, “KYTC spent $46,000 of our taxes on something and we want it shared with the public. Secretary Prather’s Cabinet said they would make it available, but they haven’t.”

We contacted the Governor’s office for a statement and here’s what spokesman Jay Blanton had to say, “The cabinet is in the process of working with the consultant, Wilbur Smith Associates, to modify the contract to include the writing of a formal report. The cabinet originally undertook to have Wilbur Smith evaluate the 8664 proposal for the sake of having internal-use data. Due to the interest since expressed from outside the cabinet, the decision was made to commission a written report. We are sure the work to complete this report will occur as expeditiously as possible.”

Just a reminder… Based on the original “Scope of Work” document, one of the original tasks of the study was, well, here:

Task 4: Develop Presentation Graphics/Project Documentation and Meetings: Based on the results of Task 3, WSA Will develop a set of graphics highlighting the differences between the scenarios. A brief white paper summarizing the methods and results of this analysis will also be prepared. WSA will also attend two meetings associated with this project. Deliverables will be in electronic format.

Thoughts?