Interstate 169 (Kentucky)


Interstate 169 is a freeway that travels along the former southern section of the Pennyrile Parkway in Kentucky. The highway was signed into law designating the route, along with the proposed extension of I-57 by President Donald Trump and was designated on May 7, 2017. It travels north from a trumpet interchange with I-24 south of Hopkinsville to a cloverleaf interchange with its parent, I-69 and the Western Kentucky Parkway near Nortonville.
As of June 2019, I-169 is still signed as the Pennyrile Parkway. No signage for I-169 has yet been put up, although "Future I-169" signs are present along the route. I-169 signage is expected to be installed when required upgrades to the Parkway are completed.

Route description

The route begins at a trumpet interchange with I-24 near Hopkinsville. It runs northward into the city of Hopkinsville. After passing through, I-169 runs through farmland and the West Kentucky Coalfield, running roughly parallel to U.S. Route 41, bypassing numerous small towns before ending at a cloverleaf interchange with I-69 and the Western Kentucky Parkway, merging with I-69 through traffic.

History

The freeway was originally known solely as, and part of the Edward T. Breathitt Pennyrile Parkway, one of the original nine parkways in the Kentucky parkway system, from its 1969 opening until May 7, 2017, when the United States Congress officially designated the section from I-24 junction in southern Christian County to the I-69/Western Kentucky Parkway junction near Nortonville. In addition to I-169’s current alignment, the Pennyrile Parkway also traveled further northward to its original terminus in Henderson until most of that stretch of the Pennyrile was signed as I-69 in November 2015. US 41 followed the remaining routing of the Pennyrile Parkway from the Henderson Bypass exit to the US 41/US 60 junction in Henderson. After the I-169 designation was made official on May 7, 2017, the unsigned Kentucky Route 9004 designation associated with the parkway was removed.
The first was not built and completed until March 2011. The Pennyrile Parkway’s original southern terminus was at the exit 7 interchange in Hopkinsville. Construction of that section was built in phases from 2009 to 2011. At some point in the early 2010s after I-69 was designated on the first of the Western Kentucky Parkway, the current I-169 alignment was rumored to be a future I-24 spur instead, in which no plans were made.

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