Interstate 169 (I-169) is a freeway that travels along the former southern section of the

Pennyrile Parkway The Edward T. Breathitt Pennyrile Parkway was the designation for the controlled-access highway from Henderson to Hopkinsville, Kentucky. The parkway originally began at an interchange with the Audubon Parkway and US 41 near the city of Henderso ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

. The highway was designated on May 7, 2017, after President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

signed legislation designating the route. It travels north from a trumpet interchange with

I-24 Interstate 24 (I-24) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It runs diagonally from I-57, south of Marion, Illinois, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, at I-75. It travels through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, ...

south of

Hopkinsville Hopkinsville is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Christian County, Kentucky, United States. The population at the 2010 census was 31,577. History Early years The area of present-day Hopkinsville was initially claimed in 1796 b ...

to a cloverleaf interchange with its parent,

I-69 Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway in the United States currently consisting of 10 unconnected segments with an original continuous segment from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, at ...

, and the

Western Kentucky Parkway The Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway is a controlled-access highway running from Elizabethtown, Kentucky to near Nortonville, Kentucky. It intersects with Interstate 65 (I-65) at its eastern terminus, and I-69 at its western terminus. ...

near Nortonville. , 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 In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, usi ...

with

near

. 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 (US 41) and bypassing numerous small towns before ending at a cloverleaf interchange with

and the

and 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

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

officially designated the section from the

junction in southern

Christian County Christian County is the name of several counties in the United States: * Christian County, Illinois * Christian County, Kentucky * Christian County, Missouri Christian County is located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Missouri. ...

to the I-69/

junction near Nortonville. In addition to I-169's current alignment, the Pennyrile Parkway also traveled further northward to its original terminus in

Henderson Henderson may refer to: People *Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname *Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan Places Argentina *Henderson, Buenos Aires Australia *Henderson, Western Australia Canada * H ...

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 (KY 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.

Exit list

References

Exterlink links

{{Named Roads in Kentucky 69-1 1 (Kentucky) Transportation in Christian County, Kentucky Transportation in Hopkins County, Kentucky

Route description

History

Exit list

See also

References

Exterlink links