By Chris Taylor
Mayfield, KY – Kentucky Transportation Cabinet officials updated attendees on I-69 corridor progress at Monday's public meeting in Mayfield. Their final report is due in February. Transportation Spokesman Keith Todd says upgrading a stretch of the Julian Carroll Purchase Parkway between Fulton and Calvert City is the most economically viable option to create I-69.
"It just makes sense that we've spent millions and millions of dollars to develop the parkway system, so it's very natural that we would put I-69 along that corridor because it's so much cheaper to upgrade existing roads than it is to go out and build a road from scratch."
Several upgrade obstacles lay in the way before federal highway officials will grant the interstate designation.
"We have some bridges along the route that either lower than current interstate standards," Todd says, "The deck may be a foot narrower than current standards."
Other upgrades include changing some loop-interchanges, like those found along the Purchase Parkway, to diamond-shaped ones. Todd expects the biggest challenge will be to build a billion-dollar-plus bridge project connecting Henderson with Evansville.
I-69 is planned to run through western Kentucky linking Texas to Michigan.