ABOUT THE CORRIDOR

The City of Cape Girardeau begins the planning process on replacing the two lane Mississippi River bridge with a new facility. The plant manager of the Cape Girardeau P&G Site started working with regional and state leaders to plan for an east-west highway (from Cape Girardeau, MO to Paducah, KY). During their local “6:30 Club” morning coffee meetings, Earl Norman, Jim Drury, Gene Rhodes, and several others begin planning for a new east-west interstate under the Regional Commerce and Growth Association group, led by Walt Wildman, who was born and raised in Wayne, County, Missouri.

Some fifty individuals from across the United States flew into St. Louis to hold a conference at the Drury Inn and Suites near Lambert International Airport, solidifying the organization as the Interstate 66 Project, Inc. Dr. Lonnie Haefner, P.E. at Washington University in St. Louis is hired to prepare the Working Paper Pre-Application Proposal for a Feasibility Study of the East-West I-66 Corridor.

The Interstate 66 Project, Inc. moves its headquarters from Cape Girardeau to Wichita, under the direction of Mayor Bob Knight.

ISTEA declares that the National Highway System shall promote economic development; support international commerce; provide improved access to ports and airports; contribute to increased productivity; be adaptable to “intelligent vehicles,” magnetic levitation systems and other new technologies wherever feasible and economical; and help implement national goals relating to mobility.

The National Interstate Highway System is formally completed.

In September 1994, the Transamerica Transportation Corridor study was released to mixed findings. Most of the interstate functionality was seen as economically viable, with the other modes of transportation as not viable at the time.

The Interstate 66 Project, Inc. pressed on and by 1995 the statutory route language was approved by Congress (November 28, 1995) and formally labeled as the East-West TransAmerica Corridor. The organization moves the headquarters back to Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Several state sponsored feasibility studies get underway starting in 1996: Kentucky’s “Existing Conditions” and in 1997, Virginia started its “TransAmerica Corridor Feasibility Study.”

In the spring of 1997, Missouri State Senator Peter Kinder helped secure a major expansion of the Procter & Gamble Family Care manufacturing facility in Cape Girardeau, including state assistance to add a new Family Care paper production line. During the expansion discussions, Procter & Gamble’s Michael Powers, representing worldwide planning and strategy leadership, requested that Missouri examine the feasibility of the I-66 interstate corridor to strengthen long-term freight access to the region. This would allow the plant to service a much wider territory, long-term. In response, MoDOT Director Joe Mickes acknowledged the transportation need and committed to conducting an I-66 Corridor Study. Wilbur Smith & Associates releases its I-66 Corridor study for the route from Hazard, Kentucky to Williamson, West Virginia.

The Virginia DOT and Michael Baker, Jr. complete the TransAmerica Corridor feasibility study looking at the route from Beckley, West Virginia to Roanoke, Virginia to Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Wilbur Smith & Associates releases the feasibility study on how to construct the I-66 Corridor bypass around Somerset and London, Kentucky.

The Federal Highway Administration gives its Record of Decision for the I-66 Corridor from Hazard, Kentucky to Williamson, West Virginia.

By this time, Kentucky had finished its studies on the “Southern Kentucky Corridor (I-66)” with the Western Kentucky to Missouri study, which looked at many alternate routes, including the statutory route required by Congress.

Somerset, Kentucky and KYTC completes and opens the I-66 and U.S. 27 interchange.

The Interstate 66 Project, Inc. organization is replaced by TransAmerica Corridor, Inc. with its headquarters remaining in Cape Girardeau.

Dr. Lonnie Haefner, P.E. provides an update to his “East-West I-66 Corridor Preliminary Report” in order to show the need for completion while also prepare the way for the “66 Corridor Study” and Tiered EIS funded by the DRA and USDOT.

The US 460 expansion study (from Petersburg to Suffolk) was started by the Virginia DOT. In Illinois, the “66 Corridor Tier 1 EIS Study” got underway. The latter was primarily funded by the Delta Regional Authority, and required the cooperation of three state DOTs (IDOT, KYTC, and MoDOT).

The “66 Corridor Tier 1 EIS Study” was cancelled in July 2015 due to Kentucky working to finish I-69, with no funding available for I-66 (TransAmerica Corridor). The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Secretary also pointed out that the statutory route language prevented a bridge getting built at Wickliffe, and that the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge must be used for the project. Kentucky’s Transportation Cabinet left the “66 Corridor Study,” causing the study to stop.

The FHWA 2003 Record of Decision is rescinded for the “Appalachian Corridor” connecting I-66 from Hazard, Kentucky to I-73 at Williamson, West Virginia. This was primarily due to lack of funding for both the I-66 Corridor, along with the I-73 project’s foundation (the King Coal Highway) not having funding, nor any progress (the TAC “shares a common corridor” with I-73 in West Virginia). A new ROD will have to be issued in the future for this section in eastern Kentucky after a new Tiered EIS.

Representative Hal Rogers secured $45 million in the federal Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024 for the (I-66) Somerset Northern Bypass, signed into law on March 9th, 2024. In total, nearly $100 million is allocated to upgrade this section into I-66 and I-365 (High Priority Corridor 3 and High Priority Corridor 97). This same year, the TransAmerica Corridor, Inc. organization works with SEMO Redi, Inc. to restart the process on the I-66 project.

The project is well on its way to a formal restart. The TransAmerica Corridor, Inc. Board of Directors now includes members from Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky. The organization has garnered many letters of support from across Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky, including municipalities, counties, chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, and elected officials. Missouri’s section for I-66 near Cape Girardeau is now on the Unfunded Needs List. IDOT is under study for a new $1 billion six lane bridge facility for I-24 at Paducah, KY, which will also hold the I-66 (TransAmerica Corridor) traffic. The King Coal Highway (divided four lane expressway) is under construction in West Virginia, and so are new divided four lane sections of the Coalfields Expressway (near Welch). The Kentucky Highway Plan (2026-2032) lists I-66 as a project again at Somerset.