Interstate 265 (I-265) is a

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 ...

partially encircling the

Louisville metropolitan area The Louisville metropolitan area is the 43rd largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States. It had a population of 1,395,855 in 2020 according to the latest official census, and its principal city is Louisville, Kentucky. Th ...

. Starting from

I-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 ...

in the southern part of Louisville, it runs through

Jefferson County, Kentucky Jefferson County is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 782,969. It is the most populous county in the commonwealth (with more than twice the population of second ranked ...

, crosses the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

on the Lewis and Clark Bridge into Indiana, meets I-65 for a second time, and then proceeds westbound to terminate at the

I-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 interchang ...

interchange. The entire Kentucky stretch of the road is cosigned with Kentucky Route 841 (KY 841). An additional stretch of freeway between

U.S. Route 31W U.S. Route 31W (US 31W) is the westernmost of two parallel routes for U.S. Route 31 from Nashville, Tennessee to Louisville, Kentucky. At one time, it split with U.S. Route 31E at Sellersburg, Indiana, crossing into nearby Louisville via the Ke ...

(US 31W)/ US 60/ KY 1934 and I-65 in the southern Louisville is solely designated as KY 841. The highway is named the

Gene Snyder Marion Eugene Snyder (January 26, 1928 – February 16, 2007) was an American politician elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives from two different districts in his native Kentucky. Background Snyder was born ...

Freeway (originally named the Jefferson Freeway), after the former congressman, and usually called "the Snyder" by locals. On the Indiana side, the highway is known as the Lee H. Hamilton Freeway.

Route description

, - , IN , , 13.1 , , 21.1 , - , KY , , 38.9 , , 62.6 , - , Total , , 52 , , 83.7

Indiana

I-265 in the US state of Indiana presently runs from I-64 at the western edge of New Albany to the Lewis and Clark Bridge near Utica. Beginning at its western terminus, the freeway is concurrent with State Road 62 (SR 62) until exit 10.

Kentucky

I-265 in the US state of

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 ...

presently runs from the Lewis and Clark Bridge in northern

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

to an interchange with

in southern Louisville. The entire freeway is concurrent with KY 841. The Gene Snyder Freeway, in which KY 841 and I-265 overlap for between I-65 and the Indiana state line, has seen an increase in serious accidents. The primary factors stem from its low-level grass median which offers little to no protection for crossover incidents. Driver inattention and increased traffic and congestion has led to a decline in the overall level-of-service. In 2006,

cable barrier A cable barrier, sometimes referred to as guard cable or wire rope safety barrier (WRSB), is a type of roadside or median safety traffic barrier/guard rail. It consists of steel wire ropes mounted on weak posts. As is the case with any roadside b ...

s were installed in the median for between I-71 and

, with further installation possible in the near future. Part of the road is currently signed in

kilometer The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is now the measurement unit used for ex ...

s, which is unusual in the United States.

Kentucky Route 841

Kentucky Route 841 (KY 841) is a

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

in the suburbs of Louisville. The route is a partial beltway, encircling Louisville on its southern and eastern sides. Compass direction changes to the north and south of exit 23, the Taylorsville Road interchange. The western terminus of the route is at US 31W and US 60 in the southwest Louisville community of

Valley Station The valley station is the lower terminal of an aerial lift, cable car, gondola lift, chairlift, rack railway or ski lift. The valley station is the counterpart of a top station. Cable cars may be boarded at both stations. The valley station is al ...

, where KY 841 continues to the west as KY 1934 while the northern terminus is at the Lewis and Clark Bridge north of the north of the East End Tunnel. Even though the section between its terminus at KY 1934 and

was built to Interstate Highway standards, it is designated only as KY 841 due to

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test quality control, protocols, and guidelines that are used in highway design and construction through ...

(AASHTO) numbering rules. The exit numbering for the entire beltway starts at the western terminus of KY 841. The KY 841 designation mostly concurrent with I-265 in Kentucky has remained.

History

Originally signed just as KY 841, the Jefferson Freeway was initially constructed in the 1960s in two sections—one between KY 155 (Taylorsville Road) and US 60 (Shelbyville Road) and a second section between KY 1447 (Westport Road) and US 42—as short connectors to the eastern suburban expansion as well as a new Ford plant. By 1970,

I-264 Interstate 264 is the designation for two Interstate Highways in the United States, both of which are related to Interstate 64: *Interstate 264 (Kentucky), a bypass of Louisville, Kentucky *Interstate 264 (Virginia) Interstate 264 (I-264) i ...

had become very congested and was in need of reconstruction and other improvements. I-265 was proposed as an outer beltway to provide pass-through motorists relief from the congestion of I-264. Construction started in the early 1980s and was finished later that decade and signed in 1987. State Road 265 (SR 265) was what the segment of the highway between I-65 and SR 60 at exit 10 in Indiana was originally known as. It was renumbered in June 2019 to I-265 after a new section of highway that includes the Lewis and Clark Bridge (known as the East End Bridge during planning and construction) fully opened to traffic on December 18, 2016. Negotiations between Indiana and Kentucky to build the bridge had taken place over the preceding 30 years. In late 2005, members of the

Louisville Metro Council The Louisville Metro Council is the city council of Louisville, Kentucky (Louisville Metro). It was formally established in January 2003 upon the merger of the former City of Louisville with Jefferson County and replaced the city's Board of A ...

proposed a committee to begin planning a western bridge over the Ohio River to link the southwestern end of the highway in Kentucky to Indiana. On December 18, 2016, SR 265 was extended east of SR 62, which crosses the Ohio River connecting with KY 841, and north of US 42 in Kentucky as part of the

Ohio River Bridges Project The Ohio River Bridges Project was a transportation project in the Louisville metropolitan area involving the reconstruction of the Kennedy Interchange (locally known as "Spaghetti Junction"), the completion of two new Ohio River bridges, and ...

, creating a bypass around the eastern side of the city of Louisville. The I-265/I-64 interchange, currently a cloverleaf with no collector–distributor lanes, is being reconstructed as part of the I-Move Kentucky Project with an estimated completion in the autumn of 2023.

Exit list

References

External links

KentuckyRoads.com: I-265
{{Named Roads in Kentucky 65-2 65-2 65-2 2 Transportation in Jefferson County, Kentucky 0265 Transportation in Clark County, Indiana Transportation in Floyd County, Indiana