PADUCAH — The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is conducting a study on potential safety and traffic-flow improvements to Interstate 24 from Paducah to the Tennessee state line. The study is not yet complete and is expected to be finished by mid-May.

One of the potential improvements under review includes adding a lane on each side of the road from Paducah to the Tennessee state line. Other measures presented by the cabinet include additional truck parking and interchange improvements. The state has hired a consulting firm to conduct the study on the future of I-24.

The cabinet is also studying replacement or upgrade projects for other bridges within Kentucky. There are two major bridges between the Ohio River Bridge and the Kentucky-Tennessee state line.

"Both of those bridges have to be either replaced or upgraded for this six-laning of I-24 all the way to the Tennessee line, for that to occur. So those bridge replacements or upgrades are a very important part of the plan," Paducah Mayor George Bray said.

"The Illinois Department of Transportation is responsible for improving the bridge and whatever the long-term plan is," Bray said. "But I am told that there is a long-term plan to replace that bridge at some point in time."

Bray said the proposed improvements would cost billions of dollars, which the state does not have. "If we had all the money, it would take 10 years just from start to finish," he said. "But the problem is that we don't have that amount of money, we'll have to advocate for help from the federal government as we go forward, and it'll take time for that advocacy to take place under different administrations."

McCracken County Sheriff Ryan Norman said I-24 has experienced many accidents each year. The number of collisions since March 1 on I-24 is down from the same period last year.

"Since March 1 of this year, there have been 24 collisions that the sheriff's office has worked on the whole span of I-24," Norman said. "There have only been nine that we have worked within the construction zone."

Norman said an expansion of the bridge would help safety in the long term. "Once it's finalized, yes, it would be very beneficial. It would make I-24 a little safer as well as the bridge," he said.