There is a point when delay stops looking like bureaucracy and starts looking like neglect.

Kentucky reached that point years ago at the Buck Creek crossing on KY Route 40 near Big Elk Road in Beauty.

Another motorcycle went off the road and into the creek Saturday evening. A woman had to be pulled from the water with blood on her face and a possible head injury. It was only the latest wreck at a location Martin County residents and emergency responders know far too well.

This is not a newly discovered problem or a hazard that caught the state by surprise. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet formally studied this stretch of road more than 13 years ago.

Its January 2013 scoping study documented 26 crashes over a 10-year period. Ten of those crashes resulted in 14 injuries. One person was killed.

The state found the roadway alignment and curves were substandard. It classified the existing culvert as structurally deficient and functionally obsolete. It identified safety problems with the geometry of the road and the structure itself.

Then the state proposed fixing it.

The project, Item No. 12-192.00, was included in the 2012 Highway Plan. At that time, design was programmed for 2014, right-of-way and utility work for 2016 and construction for 2017.

Yet here we are in 2026, still writing about vehicles going off the roadway at this crossing and ending up in Buck Creek.

In late June, a motorcyclist went over the crossing and into the creek and suffered serious injuries.

A month earlier, a car with five passengers ended up in the creek.

On Aug. 3, a Van Lear woman swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle, left the roadway, overturned and landed upside down in the creek.

Now another motorcycle has gone off the road at the same location.

How many warnings does one site require?

Martin County Sheriff John Kirk called the location a trouble spot after the June wreck.

“This has been going on for years,” he said.

And he is right.

The most frustrating part is that the government recognized the danger. The government studied it, documented the crash history, identified deficiencies, developed alternatives, and programmed construction.

Then the years passed.

The project remains active today. It is included in the state’s enacted 2026-2028 Biennial Highway Construction Plan.

In February, the Cabinet’s District 12 SHIFT report gave the project a score of 35.98, ranking it 34th among 59 District 12 projects and sixth among seven Martin County projects.

In fact, the Cabinet’s current description of the project says the work is intended to “increase motorist and pedestrian safety.

That ranking may help explain how the Cabinet compares projects competing for limited dollars, but no one should confuse a SHIFT score with a safety rating. The Cabinet’s own study documented the danger in 2013. Wrecks since then have reinforced it.

In fact, the Cabinet’s current description of the project says the work is intended to “increase motorist and pedestrian safety.

Current paperwork is hardly reassuring.

The dates have moved before. As recently as the 2024 Enacted Highway Plan, the state programmed $865,000 for construction in fiscal year 2026 and $1 million in 2027.

Now the 2026 Enacted Highway Plan places $1,974,700 in fiscal year 2028.

Yet another Cabinet record lists construction in fiscal year 2026, while a separate state data set also shows 2028 and no award date.

At the same time, the Cabinet’s tentative letting schedule dated June 15 lists the project for an Oct. 22, 2026, bid letting.

Perhaps the project has been accelerated or one system has not caught up with another.

The Transportation Cabinet should explain.

That is not an extravagant demand.

The Cabinet has known about this site since at least 2013—the crashes, injuries and fatality; the substandard roadway geometry; and the deficient structure.

A tentative bid date is encouraging, but after 13 years, it is not enough.

Thirteen years of studies, plans and delays are enough.

Martin County residents need the problem fixed now.