The front lobby of The Bruce Convention Center was full of politicians, including Gov. Andy Beshear, on Thursday morning — but no one upstaged the late John Mahre when it was time for a ceremony to tout the Interstate 169 upgrade of the Pennyrile Parkway.
Mahre was the “quarterback” of the project, said Christian County Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam. “What a long game he played. He played for years and years and years.”
A Hopkinsville architect who died at age 65 on July 4, 2022, from pancreatic cancer, Mahre spent decades advocating for highway infrastructure improvements. He did it as a volunteer and developed a reputation as an expert on highways and economic development.
A $13.9 million contract awarded to Scotty’s Contracting will fund improvements along a 34-mile stretch of the Pennyrile Parkway from the Western Kentucky Parkway in Hopkins County to Interstate 24 in Christian County. The work will bring that section of the parkway up to interstate grade with the designation I-169. It is slated for completion by November 2024, said Deneatra Henderson, chief engineer for District 2 of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
Henderson said she called Mahre a transporation ninja. You never knew “when he would pop out and ask for something that his community needed,” she said.
Steve Tribble, the past Christian County judge-executive, was first running for office in 1994 when Mahre began pushing him to understand the need for a north-south interstate through Western Kentucky.
Mahre was an early advocate for bringing I-69 all the way down the Pennyrile Parkway. When the route chosen had I-69 running on the northern half of the Pennyrile and then jutting west in Hopkins County, Mahre wouldn’t be deterred and said the southern half of the Pennyrile ought to become an I-69 spur.
The realization of that goal was the reason for Thursday’s ceremony at The Bruce. Mahre’s wife, Annie Embry Mahre, joined the governor and local officials for an indoor groundbreaking beside a huge highway sign that read “Future 169 Cooridor.” John Mahre’s children, Julia and Chris, and daughter-in-law, Leslie, were also present.
Friends said Mahre’s persistence had him traveling often to lobby lawmakers.
“He was probably better known in the halls of Congress and in Frankfort in our state capitol than he was in Hopkinsville, really, just due to all these many trips over the years advocating on transportation issues,” said Tribble.
Tribble said he had business cards printed for Mahre that identified him as the county’s deputy judge-executive, a designation that helped Mahre when he was on the road pushing for improvements in Christian County. He wasn’t paid for his work, said Tribble, but the county eventually covered some of his travel expenses.
Mahre was so relentless that Tribble used to joke and tell state transportation officials like Secretary Jim Gray, “If y’all give us what we want, I’ll tell John not come up here anymore.”
Tribble said he and others will be forever grateful for Mahre’s work on behalf of Christian County.
“John was a well-known architect in our region, but I think his best work was behind the scenes advocating for improved transportation infrastructure in Western Kentucky,” said Tribble. “He was always thinking about how to make life better for people in this region. He wanted no recognition his work, and most folks, really, around here are not even aware that he did it.”
Beshear spoke about the potential economic boost of the interstate designation.
“What this means is that the 34-mile portion of that parkway that connects communities like Christian and Hopkins counties will be safer for our families, easier to navigate for commerce and more attractive to big employers that are already finding their way to the region and certainly to Hopkinsville,” said Beshear.
According to a release from Beshear’s office, the upgrades will include:
- Increase the vertical bridge clearance heights at three overpasses (Morris Lake Road, Woodburn Hay Road, McIntosh Chapel Road) by removing pavement under the overpass and replacing the surface.
- Reconstruct bridge railings on the parkway over Drakes Creek.
- Improve the Exit 30 interchange that serves U.S. Highway 41 southbound traffic and parkway northbound traffic. Crews will upgrade the wayward signing, reconstruct the bridge railing, correct ramp deficiencies and remove the rolled curb.
- Improve the Exit 33 interchange, which currently has a conventional diamond configuration. Crews will increase taper lengths and ramp access on U.S. Highway 62 that don’t meet interstate access requirements.
- Improve the Exit 34 interchange that connects I-69/Western Kentucky Parkway and the Pennyrile Parkway near Nortonville. Crews will increase taper lengths of the southbound on-ramp.
- I-169 signage will be installed at the completion of the project, pending Federal Highway Administration approval.
Beshear was headed to the Fancy Farm Picnic this weekend for political speeches as he tries to fend off his Republican challenger, Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
As the Democratic incumbent in a state with a Republican supermajority in the state legislature and a voter base that continues to shift Republican, Beshear often tries to downplay party affiliation. He did that during his Hopkinsville visit.
“This is a thrilling time to be a Kentuckian,” said Beshear. “Even on a weekend that’s going to be filled with politics, we all remember that an interstate isn’t Democrat or Republican, a job isn’t partisan at all. These are the projects that move this commonwealth forward for all of our families. And I like forward. It’s not right, and it’s not left. It’s just forward for everyone.”
Among local officials and dignitaries who attended Thursday’s ceremony were Hopkinsville Mayor James R. Knight Jr., former chief district highway engineer Ted Merryman, state Rep. Walker Thomas, R-Hopkinsville, and several members of Hopkinsville City Council and Christian Fiscal Court.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
