A contractor for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has started transitioning traffic to the permanent alignment in the new in the New I-69 Interchange with the Breathitt-Pennyrile Parkway and Wendell Ford-Western Kentucky Parkway near Nortonville in HOPKINS County. This morning the contractor completed installation of traffic striping that allowed northbound I-69 traffic to move to the permanent configuration.
KYTC engineers anticipate the contractor will continue to open additional ramps in the interchange to full traffic flow over the next 3 to 5 days.
While traffic has been running on some of the new ramps through the interchange for several months, all traffic has been restricted to one lane to facilitate ongoing construction activities along the project. With the addition of new traffic striping one ramp at a time, all traffic through the interchange should be running on the permanent configuration by early next week.
This means new ramps in the interchange will now carry 2 lanes of traffic and allow the transition of north and south I-69 traffic between the north and west leg of the interchange at full interstate speeds. As a reminder, remaining ramps that were part of the old Cloverleaf interchange that transition to the Pennyrile and Western Kentucky Parkway legs will continue to have a lower speed.
Motorists should be alert for changes in traffic flow the new permanent alignment will bring to the interchange.
The interchange continues to have a 55 mile per hour work zone speed limit. Motorists should continue to use appropriate caution and recognize that the area around the interchange continues to be an active work zone as seeding, placement of additional signage, and other finish work is expected to continue for several more weeks.
The $29 million design-build contract to reconstruct the interchange to accommodate Interstate 69 was awarded to the Rogers Group, Inc., and QK4 Inc., with an expected completion date in early-November of this year.
Kentucky now has 55 miles of I-69. The route follows I-24 for 17 miles from The Julian Carroll-Purchase Parkway at Calvert City to Eddyville. I-69 then runs for 38 miles along the former Wendell Ford-Western Kentucky Parkway from Eddyville to the Pennyrile Parkway near Madisonville.
The I-69 Interchange project in Hopkins County is among about 10 major projects totaling $260 million in new construction aimed at gaining FHWA approval to extend the existing section of I-69 northward along the Pennyrile to Henderson and southward along the Purchase Parkway to Mayfield.
