Bowling Green Daily News: Woodburn area grades best on I-65 interchange study (March 17, 2021).Construction of any such interchange is believed to be eight to twelve years away. Improving connections with US 31W (Nashville Road) and KY 622 (Plano Road) are also being considered. Three potential alternatives under consideration are at KY 240 (Woodburn Allen Springs Road), KY 242 (Richpond Road), or at Carter Sims Road. Such an interchange would fill a fourteen mile gap between the interchange at Exit 6 in Simpson County and the I-165 interchange at Exit 20 in Bowling Green. On March 16, 2021, representatives from consulting group Michael Baker international, the Bowling Green-Warren County Metropolitan Planning Organization, and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet conducted a virtual public meeting to discuss early planning for construction of a new interchange on I-65 in Southern Warren County. When these rest areas are complete, the three rest areas in Warren and Barren Counties will be closed. New rest areas are under construction in southern Hart County. Work to widen a stretch between the Barren River and Exit 43 was completed in 2003. In 1975, the turnpike became part of I-65 which already connected to the northern and southern termini of the highway.ĭuring the 1980s, the Kentucky Turnpike section of I-65 was completely rebuilt and bears little resemblance to its original form.Ĭurrent plans are to widen the entire length I-65 south of Elizabethtown to at least six lanes. Tolls were lifted on June 30, 1975-nineteen years ahead of schedule. The turnpike was financed with bonds, and the bonds were repaid through tolls. Ground was broken on the turnpike on Jand it opened to traffic on August 1, 1956.

Thirty-nine miles of the highway between Elizabethtown and the Watterson Expressway were originally built as the Kentucky Turnpike. The route between Louisville and Nashville roughly follows the route of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Outside the state it connects to Nashville, Tennessee Indianapolis, Indiana and beyond. Within Kentucky, I-65 connects Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, and downtown Louisville. Interstate 65 is one of the two major north-south interstates in Kentucky (the other being Interstate 75).

Interstate 65 traffic conditions