Project area is 10 miles long
FRANKFORT, Ky. (Oct. 9, 2015) — Gov. Steve Beshear today announced the awarding of a construction contract to complete the widening of Interstate 65 — the finale of one of his administration’s highest transportation priorities.
“When this final project has been completed, I-65 will be six lanes wide from the Ohio River to the Tennessee border,” Beshear said. “Because of the importance of I-65 as a commercial and travel corridor, its widening will rank as one of the most significant investments ever made in the interest of business, efficiency and highway safety.”
A Kentucky company, Scotty’s Contracting and Stone LLC, of Glasgow, submitted the low bid of $68.6 million — some $11 million below the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s own estimate – for the job of widening I-65 from Sonora to the Western Kentucky Parkway interchange at Elizabethtown. The project area is 10 miles long, and the contract calls for completion of the project by November 2018.
I-65 in Kentucky is 137.3 miles long, from the Ohio River at Louisville to the Tennessee border near Franklin, in Simpson County. Along the way, it threads through or near Shepherdsville, Elizabethtown and Bowling Green. It is one of the nation’s premier freight corridors, with a heavy volume of commercial vehicle traffic.
I-65 is one of the nation’s premier freight corridors, with a heavy volume of commercial vehicle traffic. It also has been the scene of frequent and heavy traffic congestion, with correspondingly high crash rates. Completion of its widening will cap the Beshear administration’s ongoing work to make I-65 safer.
Beginning in 2008, first year of the administration, the Transportation Cabinet deployed approximately 45 miles of median cable barriers and temporary concrete barriers along stretches of I-65 to combat “crossover” crashes. Those were interim steps taken until the roadway could be widened and fitted with permanent barriers.
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