The Wendell H. Ford Expressway, also known as the Owensboro Bypass, is a major partial beltway that runs around the outer parts of the city of

Owensboro, Kentucky Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of Lou ...

. With a length of , the expressway includes parts of U.S. Route 60 (US 60) and US 231.

Road description

The expressway begins on the west side of Owensboro at a junction with the original alignment of US 60. Immediately after its start, it has a junction with the Audubon Parkway. After the exit for the Audubon, there are interchanges with

Kentucky Route 81 Kentucky Route 81 is a 39.961-mile (64.331 km) state highway in Kentucky that runs from U.S. Route 431 in South Carrollton to Kentucky Route 2831 and Kentucky Route 81 in Owensboro via Bremen, Sacramento, Rumsey, and Calhoun John C. Calh ...

(KY 81), US 431, and US 231. US 231 joins the bypass at the exit for New Hartford Road, and it then intersects Interstate 165 (I-165, the former William H. Natcher Parkway) at that freeway's northern terminus. After the interchange with KY 54 (Leitchfield Road), the road then has additional interchanges with KY 603 and KY 144. The expressway ends at an at-grade intersection with KY 2830, which is part of the original US 60 alignment on the east side of town. US 60/US 231 continues after this point as a regular four-lane highway before the two routes split again. US 231 enters

Spencer County, Indiana Spencer County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,952. The county seat is Rockport. Despite not being in the Owensboro Metropolitan Area, the entire riverfront of the city of Owensbo ...

to the north, while US 60 continues east into to

Hancock County, Kentucky Hancock County, Kentucky is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,095. Its county seat is in the city of Hawesville located in the Northern part of the county, and the city of Lewisport loc ...

History

Construction and opening (1966–73)

Construction of the Wendell H. Ford Expressway began in the 1967/68 fiscal year. It began as a two-lane road that went from US 60 to KY 54 on the east side of Owensboro. That segment opened in 1967. By the time the 1968 Official Kentucky Highway Map was released, the expressway expanded to four lanes, and went from the US 60 corridor to the US 431 corridor. The remainder of the expressway from US 431 to another junction with US 60 on the west side of Owensboro was opened to traffic by 1969–70. Interchanges for the Audubon Parkway and the then-new Green River Parkway (later William H. Natcher Parkway, now Interstate 165) were opened upon the opening of the two parkways in 1970 and 1972, respectively.

The later years (1974–2012)

The expressway eventually received the designation of U.S. Route 60 Bypass (US 60 Byp.). In 2004, US 231 was rerouted onto the expressway and onto US 60 east of town so that it would be rerouted to the completed

William H. Natcher Bridge The William H. Natcher Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge that carries U.S. Highway 231 over the Ohio River. The bridge connects Owensboro, Kentucky to Rockport, Indiana and opened on October 21, 2002. It is named in honor of William Huston Natcher, ...

once it was completed during that year. US 231 was previously carried over 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

Owensboro Bridge The Owensboro Bridge is a continuous truss bridge that spans the Ohio River between Owensboro, Kentucky and Spencer County, Indiana. Dedicated to the memory of the late U.S. Congressman Glover H. Cary (1885–1936) and often called the "Glover ...

Expressway extension and the future (2013-present)

In 2013, the Owensboro–Daviess County Government voted to reroute the regular US 60 to the expressway. In the middle of 2014, a new alignment of the expressway was completed and rerouted to bypass the eastern side of town, and KY 603 was routed onto the existing section of the expressway. This was done to connect to the campus of Owensboro Health Regional Hospital (which was completed in 2013). It was also built to prepare for the building of the proposed Interstate 67 (I-67) when and if it is being built. I-67 was planned to go from some point along

I-69 Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway in the United States currently consisting of 10 unconnected segments with an original continuous segment from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, at ...

in southwest Indiana, and it would follow the eastern part of the expressway and the Natcher Parkway to create a spur from Owensboro to join the

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 ...

corridor in

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on ...

Major intersections

Note: Mileage listings are of US 60 since the Wendell H. Ford Expressway is now classified as US 60 since 2014.

References

External links

Kentucky Transportation CabinetUS 60 at KentuckyRoads.com
{{Named Roads in Kentucky Beltways in the United States Owensboro, Kentucky Transportation in Daviess County, Kentucky U.S. Route 60 U.S. Route 231