Truckers advised to take new Kentucky road extension

Kentucky officials are asking truckers take a newly completed parkway to avoid a clogged 9-mile section of U.S. 41-Alternate through Christian County.

If traveling westbound on Interstate 24, continue to the new exit 82 to the Pennyrile Parkway and head north. If southbound on the parkway, do not take exit 7 because the parkway now continues south.

Doing so will allow drivers to avoid eight traffic signals in a work zone riddled with lane shifts, said Keith Todd, a Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spokesman.

On June 24, government officials celebrated completion of the Edward T. Breathitt/Pennyrile Parkway, the culmination of a $101 million project to build a corridor from Henderson to I-24, south of Hopkinsville.

The Pennyrile Parkway had ended at the exit 7 interchange with U.S. 41-A in Hopkinsville, and traffic headed south. After I-24 was constructed, traffic steadily increased through Hopkinsville on U.S. 41-A, but the parkway extension provides a direct connection to I-24.

After the parkway extension was done, work crews began rebuilding that section of U.S. 41-A and vehicle accidents increased, causing officials to ask drivers lacking a local destination to self-detour.

Local traffic will still need to use this slowed section of U.S. 41-A, an area where the Fort Campbell 101st Airborne Division, a Wal-Mart distribution center and truck stops exist.