State officials have issued another contract for ongoing work to convert a stretch of road to Interstate 69 in Webster County.
The 10-million-dollar deal will reconstruct a portion of the Breathitt-Pennyrile Parkway known as the Kentucky 56 Interchange.
Dumey Contracting will lead the project.
Work is already underway on another 36-mile stretch of the parkway along Hopkins, Webster and Henderson. Both projects are estimated to complete in the fall of 2015.
A major hurdle of the project has been the need to rebuild interchanges originally intended to accommodate drivers who were slowing and stopping at toll plazas, as opposed to merging with or exiting from faster interstate traffic.
To date, 55 miles of the corridor are complete – from roughly Nortonville to the interchange of I-24 and the Carroll-Purchase Parkway near Gilbertsville – and bear the red, white and blue shields of I-69. The first shield was unveiled by Gov. Beshear and then-Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez in October 2011.
Once all projects are complete, the path will be designated an interstate route and will run from Henderson to Fulton.