Kentucky officials: Traffic easing on I-71 North after winter storm causes major backups

Hundreds of drivers spent one of the coldest days Kentucky has seen in decades in standstill traffic along Interstate 71 between Louisville and Cincinnati.

Northbound lanes of I-71 near mile marker 62 were closed early Friday morning throughout much of the day and into Saturday, according to Gov. Andy Beshear and officials from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, due to multiple crashes. The closure occurred in Gallatin County, near Glencoe and the Kentucky Speedway.

By 2 p.m. Saturday, one lane of traffic had opened back up between mile markers 62 and 66, allowing cars that had been stalled in the area to move through. A detour was also in place at mile marker 55 directing cars onto I-71 South as work continued.

Clearing the queue of cars that had been stalled was expected to take several hours, according to the transportation cabinet.

Beshear noted the first closure in a Twitter post at 8:27 a.m. Friday, noting northbound lanes were closed and traffic in southbound lanes was moving slowly as well. Kentucky State Police and personnel with the National Guard were on hand to perform wellness checks and help drivers, he said, as northbound traffic was rerouted onto nearby exits.

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Still, issues persisted throughout the day. A detour had been established in the early afternoon but the transportation cabinet said in a release just after 7 p.m. that northbound lanes along I-71 near mile marker 63 were closed again due to hazardous conditions caused by the storm, and a lengthy stretch of the roadway remained closed overnight. At 4:30 a.m. Saturday, the transportation cabinet said the state highway department had "exhausted all resources at this time" but would have more personnel on the scene at 8 a.m. to help drivers.

By 6:30 a.m., according to the transportation cabinet, seven miles of what had become a 14-mile backup had been cleared as the department and state police worked to reroute remaining drivers. Just one lane of southbound traffic was open in the meantime.

"It will take multiple hours to reroute vehicles," the cabinet said at the time. "Officials continue to advise motorists to avoid the area."

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Cars still stuck in traffic on I-71 North on Saturday morning were being turned around to travel southbound along the highway to exit 62, where they were rerouted onto I-71 South or allowed to go in either direction along US-127.

In a Saturday morning press conference, Beshear said three separate crashes involving tractor-trailers had caused multiple shutdowns since Thursday night. Around 700 vehicles were evacuated overnight Friday into Saturday, he said, but work remained on Christmas Eve. No one had been killed and no serious medical issues had been reported, he added.

Speed was a factor in several of the crashes, Beshear said, and as roads remain icy Saturday, the governor said he planned to issue an executive order setting the speed limit of that stretch of I-71 at 45 mph for the time being – and state officials suggest driving even slower, he noted.

BUpdates on the situation can be found through Beshear's Twitter page and through the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 6 Twitter page.

This story will be updated.

Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Interstate 71 N in Kentucky begins to clear after winter storm traffic