The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet reports that a contractor for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet switched the new 38-mile section of Interstate 69 in Lyon, Caldwell, and Hopkins Counties to new mile points and new signage Friday. Old mile markers for the former Western Kentucky Parkway have been removed or covered.
The change also reoriented the east-west direction of the former Parkway to north-south for Interstate 69 from the Interstate 24 Interchange near Eddyville to the Breathitt-Pennyrile Parkway Interchange near Madisonville.
Transportation Cabinet spokesman Keith Todd noted that there are a few old signs that will have to be removed over the next few days, but the new I-69 signs and mile markers are to be used to report emergencies to area agencies.
“Most of the old signage has been removed or covered,” Todd said. “There are a few old signs that will be taken down on Monday. I think the toughest challenge for everyone is the reorientation from east and west that we’ve used for so many years to the north-south direction for I-69.”
Todd emphasized that mile points along the “co-badged” section where I-24 and I-69 run together from the Purchase Parkway Interchange at I-24 Exit 25 near Calvert City to the I-24 Exit 42 Interchange near Eddyville will remain the same.
“Whenever two routes converge, the lowest number or oldest route is prime or dominant,” Todd said.
The work included updating some of the existing signage along Interstate 24 to current Interstate standards. State signs crews have also placed signs along a number of state highways directing motorists to the new I-69 route.
The new section of I-69 starts with the 68 mile marker running eastward from the I-24 Interchange, crosses US 62 at mile point 71.784, meets KY 91 at mile point 79.771, crosses KY 109 at mile point 92.5, and ends at the I-69 Interchange with the Pennyrile Parkway at mile point 106.4.