Kennedy Interchange - Need For Improvements

Need For Improvements

Since I-71 was completed from this interchange to the Watterson Expressway in 1968 and I-64 was completed to the Watterson Expressway in 1970, this interchange has served as the junction for almost all interstate highway traffic entering, exiting, and passing through Downtown Louisville. Some of the ramps do not conform to modern interstate standards (such as merge ramps entering into the left-hand lane as opposed to the right-hand lane). Although the I-65 Kennedy Bridge was restriped for narrower northbound lanes in the 1990s (for a total of seven lanes — four northbound, three southbound), the bridge continues to operate beyond its intended capacity. Some complications at the interchange include the facts that westbound traffic from I-64 cannot exit to I-71 and that southbound traffic from I-71 cannot exit to eastbound I-64.

The states of Kentucky and Indiana have approved a multi-year project, namely the Ohio River Bridges Project, to completely reconfigure the interchange.