The Martha Layne Collins Blue Grass Parkway is a

controlled-access highway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms i ...

running from

Elizabethtown, Kentucky Elizabethtown is a home rule-class city and the county seat of Hardin County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 28,531 at the 2010 census, and was estimated at 30,289 by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2019, making it the 11th-largest city ...

Woodford County, Kentucky Woodford County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 26,871. Its county seat is Versailles. The area was home to Pisgah Academy. Woodford County is part of the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metrop ...

, for a length of 71.134 miles (114.479 km). It intersects with

Interstate 65 Interstate 65 (I-65) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates ending in 5, it is a major crosscountry, north–south route, connecting between the Great Lakes and the Gulf ...

at its western terminus, and U.S. Route 60 at its eastern terminus. It is one of seven highways that are part of the

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

parkway A parkway is a landscaped thoroughfare.''"parkway."''Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (14 Apr. 2007). The term is particularly used for a roadway in a park or ...

system. The road is designated unsigned Kentucky Route 9002 (BG 9002). It is constructed similar to the

Interstate Highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

system, though sections do not measure up to current Interstate standards.

History

As a toll road

The parkway was opened in November 1965 as the Kentucky Bluegrass parkway (the "Kentucky" was dropped a few years later) and was originally a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented ...

, as were all Kentucky parkways. The parkway route largely parallels that of

U.S. Route 62 U.S. Route 62 or U.S. Highway 62 (US 62) runs from the Mexican border at El Paso, Texas, to Niagara Falls, New York, near the Canadian border. It is the only east-west United States Numbered Highway that connects Mexico and Can ...

. State law requires that toll collection ceases when enough tolls are collected to pay off the parkway's construction bonds; that occurred in 1991.

Toll plazas and charges

The table below shows the locations of the former toll plazas, and toll charges that were previously charged for consumer-sized, or class 1 vehicles.

Name changes

In 2003, the road was renamed in honor of

Martha Layne Collins Martha Layne Collins (née Hall; born December 7, 1936) is an American former businesswoman and politician from the Commonwealth of Kentucky; she was elected as the state's 56th governor from 1983 to 1987, the first woman to hold the office and ...

, the first female

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of Kentucky. Previously, it was the Kentucky Bluegrass parkway (and signed as "KB Parkway"), then later renamed the "Blue Grass Parkway" (sometimes with "Bluegrass" as one word, though in the highway's name, it was officially two words), and often called the "BG Parkway" because of the abbreviation once used on its original signs from 1965 until they were replaced by a shield with the Collins name in 2003.

Route description

The parkway begins in Hardin County, at its I-65 junction near Elizabethtown. The parkway traverses

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

, northern

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, northern

Mercer Mercer may refer to: Business * Mercer (car), a defunct American automobile manufacturer (1909–1925) * Mercer (consulting firm), a large human resources consulting firm headquartered in New York City * Mercer (occupation), a merchant or trader, ...

, southern

Anderson Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson ...

, and

Woodford Woodford may refer to: Places Australia *Woodford, New South Wales *Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region *Woodford, Victoria Canada * Woodford, Ontario England *Woodford, Cornwall * Woodford, Gloucestershire *Woodford, Greate ...

counties, passing Bardstown, Lawrenceburg, and ending just east of

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

. The toll plazas, which were removed in 1991, were located at the following locations: *Exit 10 at

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

*Exit 34 at Bloomfield, and *Exit 59 at Lawrenceburg.

Future

Interstate 64

No connection to

Interstate 64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchange w ...

was planned as it had not been constructed and would not open until the late 1970s. By the time the road opened, however, it was first named the Kentucky Bluegrass parkway, and then later renamed just the Bluegrass Parkway. There have been talks for a direct connection from the eastern terminus of the parkway at US 60 to Interstate 64, but all have failed. Such a connection would almost certainly draw enormous opposition in the Lexington area due to the many horse farms that would be adversely affected; the

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...

breeding industry is an important direct employer and a major tourist draw in the region.

Exit list

References

# Carlyle, Jeffrey
"Re: Lexington loop?"
Online posting. May 1, 2002. May 1, 2002. # "Report on Examination of Financial Statements and Supplemental Data — Central Kentucky Toll Road (Bluegrass Parkway)." Cook and Taylor Certified Public Accountants. June 30, 1982. Accessed March 12, 2004.

External links

{{Named Roads in Kentucky 9002 Kentucky parkway system Transportation in Anderson County, Kentucky Transportation in Hardin County, Kentucky Transportation in Mercer County, Kentucky Transportation in Nelson County, Kentucky Transportation in Washington County, Kentucky Transportation in Woodford County, Kentucky