Kentucky Transportation Cabinet pauses Adopt-A-Highway program to evaluate safety concerns

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has paused the state’s Adopt-A-Highway program because of “increased safety risks” for volunteers picking up litter alongside adopted roads.

Allen Blair, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, in an emailed statement Tuesday said the cabinet paused the decades-old program “because of the nationwide rise in work zone crashes and distracted driving.” 

“The intent of the pause is to allow the Transportation Cabinet to review the program and consider the safety of participants and potential adjustments,” Blair said. “When the program is active, groups coordinate with district staff to receive the appropriate safety gear and garbage bags. Volunteer groups were notified to pause clean-ups along adopted state-maintained roadsides until further notice while the review continues.” 

Naitore Djigbenou, another cabinet spokesperson, in an email said conversations about pausing the program began in 2024, with the cabinet pausing the program soon after. Djigbenou said there is no firm timeline on how long the pause will continue and that the cabinet would update volunteer groups “once we have determined the next steps.”

Kentucky’s Adopt-A-Highway program allows volunteer groups to “adopt” a stretch of a state road to pick up litter a few times a year. In return, the cabinet places a road sign along the stretch of road displaying the group’s name and provides safety vests and trash bags for volunteers. 

The cabinet states that more than 300 groups participate in the Adopt-A-Highway program maintaining over 2,100 miles of roads, and that the state has participated in such a program since 1988. Missouri’s transportation department decided to phase out their Adopt-A-Highway program in 2024, citing the program’s costs and safety concerns for volunteers. 

Billy O’Bryan, the Kentucky Program Director for the national nonprofit Young People in Recovery, had members of his Louisville chapter of the nonprofit “adopt” a stretch of Beulah Church Road in Jefferson County in 2023. 

A Transportation Cabinet employee wrote in a July 2024 email to O’Bryan that the cabinet was “reviewing the program for potential adjustments.” O’Bryan told the Lantern he’s been frustrated at the lack of communication on the program’s status, saying he was never given a reason for the pause. He said his volunteer group has carried on with road clean ups at their own expense. 

“I definitely want my people to be safe. But again, that’s why they would provide us with that equipment already, so that we could put signs up and where vests and be visible,” O’Bryan said.

This story has been updated with another statement from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.