The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has awarded a $30 million dollar contract to reconstruct a major interchange in Hopkins County, as part of the ongoing Interstate 69 project.
The state awarded the contracts to Nashville-based Rogers Group Inc. and Qk4, headquartered in Louisville. Their low bid was for $29,004,662.
The project involves a cloverleaf interchange connecting I-69 with the Breathitt-Pennyrile Parkway, south of Madisonville.
KYTC spokesman Keith Todd says this is one of ten major projects that stands in the way of an interstate designation by 2018.
“Three to 4 four years is kind of a realistic number that we’ve arrived at and we’re working pretty aggressively to meet the timetable," said Todd. "And it’s just going be a matter of, is there enough money to do it and is there enough time to get it done on the timetable that we’ve laid out there.”
KYTC spokesman Chuck Wolfe said the interchange, as is, doesn’t meet interstate standards because its exit ramps were designed for cars slowing down to pay a toll, not merge into 70 mph traffic.
I-69 in Kentucky will run north to south from Henderson to Fulton. A 55-mile segment of the corridor has been completed, from Nortonville to the I-24 Purchase Parkway interchange at Calvert City.
