By Jamie Johnson, Building Kentucky
In December 2021, Mayfield, Kentucky, endured a powerful EF-4 tornado that nearly wiped out the city’s downtown and caused mass devastation to the families who call Mayfield home. All the city’s municipal buildings were damaged beyond repair in the storm, and a massive cleanup effort was immediately underway to clean up the damage and reimagine a new downtown Mayfield.
“Never in the lives of anybody in Mayfield, Kentucky, did we think that over three years later, I’d be sitting here telling about a catastrophic event that took so much from our community, it changed the history of our town,” said Mayfield Mayor Kathy Stewart O’Nan. “We lost 24 precious people that we can never get back, and everything else that we lost, churches downtown, every municipal building belonging to the city and county government.”
The Rebuild Mayfield project aims to transform downtown into a safer, more accessible space for walking and biking. This initiative will replace 2.5 miles of roadways and address the pre-existing infrastructure challenges that existed before the tornado. Streets will be redesigned to allocate more space within the public right-of-way for pedestrians and cyclists, separated from vehicle traffic, to encourage safer travel speeds. As part of the project, we will evaluate different design options for 7th and 8th Streets, as well as nearby roadways and intersections, during upcoming preliminary design meetings.
“We know that rebuilding Mayfield will help revitalize the area that’s been devastated and impacted, which really is the heart of town,” said Kyle Poat, KYTC Chief District One Engineer. “The goal that we have envisioned is to create a more modernized corridor, pedestrian friendly, enable on street parking, so that we help revitalize this area and promote businesses build closer to the street, but provide that ability for pedestrians to walk to and from each business, as well as creating more of a downtown feel.”
Planning for the project is currently underway, and construction is expected to start in 2026. To learn more about Rebuild Mayfield, visit rebuildmayfield.com. To see updates on the project, follow KYTC District One on Facebook.
