6-mile stretch of I-64 East in Louisville reopens a day 'earlier than anticipated'

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A 6-mile stretch of Interstate 64 East in Louisville reopened early Friday, a day ahead of schedule.

That's despite crews finding that they needed to do more work than first anticipated on the Lexington Road overpass.

"We had some inspectors that did some what's called 'sounding,' where we see, basically like if you take a hammer and knock on some concrete, you'll hear the hollow sound behind it," said Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spokesperson Matt Bullock. It didn't look too bad like Lexington Road did -- it didn't look too bad but it sounded bad. So we went ahead and did an overlay on that deck and then just some minor patching."

The road has been shut down from the Interstate 71 split to the Watterson Expressway before reconnecting to I-64 East since June 16 and was scheduled to reopen on July 1.

UPDATE: I-64 E To Re-Open Tomorrow, June 30, @ 6 am - Crews finished work earlier than anticipated!Project included asphalt resurfacing, guardrails, removal of concrete pavement in Cochran Tunnel, bridge deck replacement over Beals Branch Rd, bridge overlay over Lexington Rd pic.twitter.com/QRpwUvm3om
— KYTCDistrict5 (@KYTCDistrict5) June 30, 2023

In addition to the work on the Lexington Road overpass, crews re-paved the roadway replaced guardrails and completed finishing work in the the Cochran Hill Tunnels. KYTC said the bridge deck over Beals Branch Road was removed and replaced with concrete.

The westbound lanes of the interstate closed on June 2 for the same work, but reopened four days ahead of schedule on June 12.

KYTC said the work was long overdue, since the last major resurfacing in 2001. This project is expected to "extend the life of the interstate" and "improve driver comfort" on the roadway.

For more information about the project, and other ongoing projects across the city, click here.

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