Nation's Top Highway Official Joins Kentucky Governor to Celebrate Louisville Highway Projects |
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Topics: Interstate Highway System, Victor Mendez
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Federal Highway Administration
29 April 2010
FHWA 09-10
Contact: Doug Hecox
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Phone: 202-366-0660
Revive 65 and I-264 Interchange Make Travel Safer in Louisville
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Drivers and businesses in Louisville, Ky., will benefit from safer, smoother and less congested travel on two key interstates now that improvements on I-65 and a new interchange on I-264 at Westport Road are finished, Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez announced today.
Administrator Mendez joined Governor Steve Beshear and other state and local officials at events in Louisville today marking the opening of both projects.
"Recovery funds and other federal dollars are hard at work here in Kentucky helping put people back to work, stimulate the economy, move key transportation projects forward, and improve mobility for the traveling public," U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.
Known as "Revive 65," the I-65 improvements used $18 million in Recovery Act funds to repave a three-mile section of the interstate considered the most heavily traveled in the state, averaging 186,000 vehicles per day. The pavement was originally placed in 1988, and erosion beneath the road had caused the concrete slabs to settle unevenly. The road was dangerous for both cars and motorcycles, and the project was considered urgent for the sake of highway safety.
"In addition to being good for people, commerce and the economy," Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez said, "these two projects represent key infrastructure improvements that will benefit everyone who lives in or drives through Louisville."
I-264 at Westport Road used $47 million in federal-aid dollars to build the new interchange necessary in an area of rapid development in greater Louisville. It will help relieve congestion at adjacent interchanges on Brownsboro and Shelbyville roads and will provide motorists with better access to I-264. This project is the final piece in a 20-year plan to construct an interchange and widen Westport Road and is considered a major step toward improving the region's overall transportation network.
Of the $26.6 billion in Recovery Act funding available to states for highway and bridge projects, Kentucky obligated $420 million toward 107 projects. As of April 16, 47 are under way.