LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — After more than three weeks, demolition work is done on Interstate 65 in Louisville.

It's part of the I-65 Central Corridor Project to replace several aging overpass bridges along the interstate through downtown.

The interstate closed June 1 between Jefferson Street and Interstate 264 for two months.

Now that the noisy demolition work is done, crews will begin moving into the next phase of the project — rebuilding three overpass bridges.

Officials with the Kentucky Transportation Project said Thursday the work is staying on schedule, even with recent heavy rain in Louisville causing brief interruptions over the last week.

"Weather is one of the things we cannot control," KYTC spokesperson Mindy Peterson said. "We lost about half of a shift."

I-65 Closure | Traffic Map | Latest Coverage | Real-Time Alerts

Even with the rain that moved through Louisville Wednesday night into Thursday morning, construction is rolling at a steady pace.

"We have now removed the old bridges at the three sites," said Peterson. "These are complete replacements."

With demolition out of the way, crews are now building the decks and super structures of the new overpasses at Hill and Burnett, and at Kentucky and Brook.

KYTC project manager Natalie House-Lewis walked news crews underneath the interstate Thursday, where newly-installed supportive structures are now in place.

"The area that you see in gravel, all of that used to be bridge," House-Lewis said.

On the Bradley overpass, House-Lewis said contractors have transitioned from structural work to roadway work, beginning to install guardrail and pave the road. Because of the recent weather interruptions, they've rearranged some tasks for crews to make sure work remains on schedule.

"It's more so pulling people from doing a secondary task to help out with a primary task or anything that's on the critical path and we may ask people to stay a little extra," said House-Lewis.

Peterson, meanwhile, said they're still on target to reopen the interstate Aug. 1.

"I also want people to know when we reopen traffic, you're still going to see these men and women working beside you on these three bridges," she said. "They are building enough of that deck now to reopen to two lanes of traffic in each direction, but work will continue on these three bridges until March of next year and then the entire project continues until late next year."

The three bridges were built in the late 1950s and were in "poor" condition, according to WDRB News' review of Federal Highway Administration data. 

The stretch of highway is three lanes in each direction, carrying about 125,000 cars each day: local commuters going downtown to work, eat or see a show mixed with regional traffic passing through town. A portion of the southbound stretch — between University Boulevard and the Watterson Expressway — is set to reopen July 1. But traffic in both directions isn't scheduled to reopen until Aug. 1. At that point, two lanes will be back open in each direction until the expected full reopening in late 2027.

For more information on the project, click here. For everything you need to know about the two-month interstate closure, including detour information, click here.

Copyright 2026 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.