Kentucky Route 80 (KY 80) 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 southern part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. The route originates on the state's western border at

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in Hickman County and stretches across the southern portion of the state, terminating southeast of

Elkhorn City Elkhorn City is a home rule-class city in Pike County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 982 at the 2010 census. The city is located in proximity to the Breaks Interstate Park. History Elkhorn City was first settled by William ...

on the Virginia state line. It is the longest

Kentucky State Highway State highways in Kentucky are maintained by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, which classifies routes as either primary or secondary. Some routes, such as Kentucky Route 80, are both primary and secondary, with only a segment of the route lis ...

, though the official distance as listed in route logs is much less due to multiple concurrencies with U.S. Route 68 (US 68) and US 23. The route was split into two segments from 2003 to November 2009. Construction and relocation of KY 80 in

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, and Marshall counties during this time caused the route to be split. A new, four-laned section of KY 80 opened in Calloway County on November 25, 2009. The route is now a four-lane divided highway from Mayfield to Bowling Green after the widening to four lanes from Canton to Cadiz was completed in 2020.

Route description

Jackson Purchase region

From

, the road passes through Hickman,

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, and

counties to Mayfield. Before 2003, the road passed through Mayfield and into Marshall County before converging with US 68 in Aurora. The two-lane segment of former KY 80 from Mayfield to Aurora now has two separate designations. From Mayfield to Brewers in Marshall County, the road retains its former co-designation as KY 58. The segment from Brewers to Aurora is now designated as KY 402. From Mayfield, KY 80 travels along a new four-lane corridor into

Calloway County Calloway County is a county located in the southwest part of the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 37,103. Its county seat is Murray. The county was founded in November 1822 and named for Colonel Richard ...

and on to

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. The route continues through eastern Calloway County and into Marshall County before converging with US 68 near the eastern terminus of KY 402 in Aurora.

Concurrency with U.S. 68

From Aurora, it follows US 68 through

Trigg County Trigg County is a county located on the far southwestern border of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,061. Its county seat is Cadiz. Formed in 1820, the county was named for Stephen Trigg, an officer in th ...

, and dissects the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. The two routes then makes its way through

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, and

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counties to Bowling Green ( Warren County). From Bowling Green through Glasgow to Edmonton, Kentucky Route 80 remains overlapped with US 68 serving eastern Warren,

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and Metcalfe Counties until it goes a little past downtown Edmonton. KY 80 is part of the

Kentucky Scenic Byways 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 ...

system for its entire concurrency with US 68.

Glasgow to Somerset

From Glasgow to Somerset, KY 80 is paralleled (and largely supplanted) by the Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway, which is officially designated as the future route of Interstate 66 (I-66), although interest in that project has been lost. KY 80 serves rural portions of Barren, Metcalfe, Adair (including

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(including Russell Springs), and southern Casey counties to Somerset, in Pulaski County.

Somerset to Hazard

Between Somerset and London (

Laurel County Laurel County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 62,613. Its county seat is London. After a special election in January 2016 alcohol sales are permitted only ...

), KY 80 is again the primary route. From London to

Hazard A hazard is a potential source of harm Harm is a moral and legal concept. Bernard Gert construes harm as any of the following: * pain * death * disability * mortality * loss of abil ity or freedom * loss of pleasure. Joel Feinberg giv ...

, KY 80 is again supplanted, this time by the

Hal Rogers Parkway The Hal Rogers Parkway, formerly named the Daniel Boone Parkway, connects Somerset and Hazard in southeastern Kentucky. This toll road opened in November 1971, and the tolls were removed June 1, 2003. The original extent of the highway was t ...

(formerly the Daniel Boone Parkway), a Super-two highway that acts as an expressway in the area. KY 80 serves rural portions of Clay,

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, and Perry counties, including the city of Manchester, before rejoining the Parkway near Hazard.

Hazard to Pikeville and the Virginia border

KY 80 is a modern four-lane highway (though not

controlled access 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 ...

) from Hazard through Knott County to

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in Floyd County where it converges with US 23. This section of Kentucky Route 80 was completely new construction; most of the remnants of KY 80's old alignment were renamed with several designations, primarily KY 550. KY 80 continues, concurrent with US 460 until reaching Belcher in Pike County and continues into Virginia from

as Virginia State Route 80.

History

Before 1980

KY 80's original western terminus was located near Bristow, just east of Bowling Green from its 1929 establishment through the early 1950s; the segment from Columbus to US 68 in Aurora was originally signed as KY 98. In the late 1940s, when US 68 was rerouted to its current routing between Bowling Green and Perryville, KY 80's western terminus was truncated to its junction with US 68 in Edmonton. KY 80 was extended to its late-20th century length, including the concurrency with US 68, at sometime in 1954. From around 1948 through 1953, Russell S. Dyche, an editor for the '' London Sentinel-Echo'', led a years-long effort to persuade the Kentucky Department of Highways (now the

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is Kentucky's state-funded agency charged with building and maintaining federal highways and Kentucky state highways, as well as regulating other transportation related issues. The Transportation Cabi ...

) to extend the KY 80 designation westward onto its route from Edmonton to Columbus, including the US 68 concurrency. Dyche, who also led a motorcade to KY 80's current western terminus all the way from Elkhorn City, continued to promote the highway until his late 1959 death. In 1978, the segment of KY 80 from Somerset to London was named the Russell Dyche Memorial Highway.

Columbus-Belmont ferry

Originally, KY 80 continued westward via a ferry crossing of the Mississippi River to Belmont, Missouri, where it continued westward as Missouri Route 80, which travels west to US 61/ US 62 (and I-55 in the present day) between New Madrid and Sikeston, Missouri. The toll ferry service was discontinued in 1984.

Proposed Interstate 66 in the Daniel Boone National Forest

The state's I-66 proposals called for KY 80 to be bypassed in the area between Somerset and London, with the new road to share only the crossing over the Rockcastle River gorge. This proposal has met with controversy in the mid-2000s, with area residents preferring that the new Interstate be built on the existing KY 80 right of way. The project has since lost interest.

Late 20th century realignments

KY 80's original alignments in Knott and Perry counties were renumbered to KY 550 at some point around 1979–1980. Several other segments of KY 80 were rerouted in various areas between Somerset and Prestonsburg between 1977 and 1984. When the US 68/KY 80 four-lane realignment between Hopkinsville and Bowling Green was completed in the late 1990s, several of the route's old alignments were kept intact, notably in areas between Hopkinsville and Bowling Green. Old alignments of US 68/KY 80 in Fairview, Elkton, Russellville, Auburn, Bowling Green and Glasgow were converted into

business route A business route (or business loop, business spur, or city route) in the United States is a short special route connected to a ''parent'' numbered highway at its beginning, then routed through the central business district of a nearby city or ...

s of US 68. Sometime in 2007, the route was rerouted onto a bypass route around Cadiz; the original alignment in that city also became a US 68 business loop.

Rerouting in the Purchase area

The KY 80 alignment from Brewers to Aurora was renumbered as KY 402 at some point during the 2002/2003 fiscal year. Around that time, KY 80 was re-routed onto a four-lane highway from Mayfield to Aurora via the northern outskirts of

. The segment from US 641 to US 68 was completed in 2006, while the remainder was built during the 2008/2009 fiscal year.

Eggners Ferry Bridge collapse of 2012

On January 26, 2012, the

Eggner's Ferry Bridge Eggner Ferry Bridge, also known as Eggner's Ferry Bridge, is a four-lane bridge in Trigg and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The current through-arch bridge opened to traffic on April 7, 2016, replacing a two-lane bowstring truss ...

carrying KY 80 and US 68 over Kentucky Lake ( Tennessee River) near Aurora collapsed because a cargo ship crashed into one of the bridge's support pillars. The bridge re-opened to traffic in May 2012, but it was replaced by a four-lane bridge that was built more than three years afterwards. A new bridge with similar design over Lake Barkley was completed in 2018 to replace the old bridge near Canton.

Major intersections

Special routes

Mayfield business route

Kentucky Route 80 Business (KY 80 Bus.) is a

business spur A business route (or business loop, business spur, or city route) in the United States is a short special route connected to a ''parent'' numbered highway at its beginning, then routed through the central business district of a nearby city or ...

of KY 80 located in Mayfield, in

Graves County Graves County is a county located on the southwest border of the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 36,649. Its county seat is Mayfield. The county was formed in 1824 and was named for Major Benjamin Fr ...

. The main alignment of KY 80 was rerouted around Mayfield on a new four-lane alignment. Previously, KY 80 had gap within the city from the

Purchase Parkway The Julian M. Carroll Purchase Parkway is a controlled-access highway in the US state of Kentucky running from Fulton to Mayfield, near Kentucky Dam, for a length of . It begins at the Tennessee state line concurrent with U.S. Route 51 (US ...

(now- Interstate 69) interchange to US 45 in downtown Mayfield. KY 80's main alignment resumed beyond the US 45 junction.

Pulaski County connector route

Kentucky Route 80 Connector (KY 80 Conn.) is a roadway in Pulaski County that connects KY 80 with KY 3261. It is located on the west side of Somerset just outside of the city limits.

Somerset business route

Kentucky Route 80 Business (KY 80 Bus.) is a business route of KY 80 located in Somerset, the Pulaski County seat. It begins on the west side of Somerset at KY 80's junction with the KY 914 bypass. It intersects US 27 and KY 1247 in downtown. Its eastern terminus after intersecting KY 192 is at mile point 21.161 of the main route of KY 80 on the east side of Somerset.

Floyd County spur route

Kentucky Route 80 Spur (KY 80S) is a spur route of KY 80 in southern Floyd County. It connects KY 80 with KY 1428 at

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References

External links