The AA Highway 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 ...

maintained by 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 ...

(KYTC) in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The mainline route parallels 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 ...

from Interstate 275 (I-275) in Wilder to Vanceburg; it is cosigned as

Kentucky Route 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 ...

(KY 9). From Vanceburg, the highway splits into two routes, with the southern spur using the KY 9 designation and continuing to Grayson and

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 interchange w ...

, and the eastern spur using the designation of KY 10 and continuing to Greenup. The AA is mostly a two-lane rural highway that provides the only direct connection between Ashland and

Northern Kentucky Northern Kentucky is the third-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky after Louisville and Lexington, and its cities and towns serve as the de facto "south side" communities of Cincinnati, Ohio. The three main counties ...

, which includes

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. The route name is a contraction of its earlier name of the Alexandria to Ashland Highway, which referenced two cities connected by the highway:

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

in Northern Kentucky and (via I-64) Ashland in Eastern Kentucky. The route is officially known as the John Y. Brown Jr. AA Highway, named for politician and entrepreneur. While the highway passes through terrain that is rolling to hilly, the highway is generally level with moderate grades and no steep grades. Except for Carter County, all counties that the AA Highway passes through border the

. While the AA Highway is not an expressway, it nonetheless serves as the shortest highway link between Cincinnati and

Ashland, Kentucky Ashland is a home rule-class city in Boyd County, Kentucky, United States. The largest city in Boyd County, Ashland is located upon a southern bank of the Ohio River at the state border with Ohio and near West Virginia. The population was 21,6 ...

. As such, it provides a link between Cincinnati and other Midwestern cities such as

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

, and

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

and cities south and east of Ashland such as Huntington and

Charleston Charleston most commonly refers to: * Charleston, South Carolina * Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital * Charleston (dance) Charleston may also refer to: Places Australia * Charleston, South Australia Canada * Charleston, Newfoundlan ...

in West Virginia,

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Cha ...

and

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

in Virginia, and

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

and

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in N ...

in North Carolina. The only municipalities on the highway are Vanceburg and Maysville and suburban areas of

at its western terminus. Those areas are also the only areas with any services used by motorists such as motels, gas stations, restaurants, convenience stores, etc. The only traffic signals on the AA Highway are near Maysville (along a commercial strip with many retail establishments and restaurants), suburban Cincinnati, and at its eastern terminus just north of

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 ...

near Grayson. There are no rest areas on the AA Highway. Other than the portions that traverse the edge of Maysville and enter suburban Cincinnati, there are no shopping centers or major retail stores along the AA Highway. The AA Highway is a rural two-lane highway for most of its length and traverses through some desolate terrain. Driver inattention and speeding, in combination with the numerous side road entrances and at-grade intersections have made it a dangerous and deadly road. To address these issues, guide signs comparable to interstate-styled signs have been installed along the highway at major intersections, along with additional overhead lighting. Other measures to improve safety and increase capacity are under consideration.

Route description

The AA Highway follows a general northwest–southeast orientation. It begins at an interchange with

I-275 Interstate 275 (I-275) may refer to: *Interstate 275 (Florida), a loop through Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Bradenton in Florida *Interstate 275 (Michigan), a western bypass of Detroit, Michigan *Interstate 275 (Ohio–Indiana–Kentucky), a full belt ...

in Wilder in Campbell County and is designated as KY 9–AA Highway. The route then passes the outskirts of its namesake

. Within Campbell County, the road is a four-lane arterial highway. Note that the KY 9 route begins about north in Newport before it is designated as the AA. The next segment passes through a remote, hilly region where the road is generally three lanes, with a passing lane present at uphill grades. A few miles west of Maysville, the highway runs concurrently with KY 10, and the road becomes an arterial highway again. The concurrency ends within Maysville, and upon passing out of the city, the road becomes a two-lane rural highway through an agricultural region. KY 9 then crosses the

Allegheny Escarpment The Portage Escarpment is a major landform in the U.S. states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York which marks the boundary between the Till Plains to the north and west and the Appalachian Plateau to the east and south. The escarpment is the defin ...

into the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

at the same time that another concurrency with KY 10 begins. The remainder of KY 9 passes through mountainous terrain and is generally two lanes with periodic passing lanes. After passing through Vanceburg, the AA Highway follows two routes. The first follows KY 9, which turns southeasterly away from the Ohio River and towards Grayson. The KY 9-AA Highway ends at an intersection with KY 1 and KY 7, which provides a short connection to

and access to Ashland. The second route follows KY 10, which continues to parallel the Ohio River. The AA Highway designation of KY 10 terminates at US Route 23 (US 23), which provides connections to Greenup and Ashland. The KY 10 route continues without the AA designation for about before terminating at the

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

border on the

Jesse Stuart Memorial Bridge The Jesse Stuart Memorial Bridge is a viaduct bridge on top of the Greenup Lock and Dam on the Ohio River. The bridge, named after author and Greenup County, Kentucky native Jesse Stuart, was completed in 1984 and carries Kentucky Route 10 (un ...

History

The AA Highway was envisioned as a modern highway from

to Ashland. Construction began in 1985 on the first segment of the AA Highway. Estimated to cost $266 million (equivalent to $ in ) to complete, it was designed primarily as a two-lane controlled-access facility. The first phase included the construction of of the AA Highway from the junction of

and Licking Pike (existing KY 9) in Campbell County east to Vanceburg. The first phase also included the design of two spurs running east from Vanceburg, one ending at US 23 near Lloyd and the

, the other ending near

in Grayson. When construction began, the costs for the first phase had risen to $292.7 million; the state had sold $300 million in bonds to pay for it. Segments of the highway, from Clarksburg just west of Vanceburg to Tollesboro was routed on an earlier relocated alignment of KY 10. It officially opened in 1995; however, it was not formally dedicated until 2003. File:I-275 East - Exit 77 - KY9 AA Highway (31368102068).jpg, Signage for exit 77 on I-275; northern terminus of AA Highway File:KY9 South AA Highway Signs - Near KY915 (44197681894).jpg, AA Highway in Cold Spring File:KYSR9SR10US68US62Maysville.jpg, AA Highway in Maysville File:Kentucky Route 9 North of Grayson, Kentucky (14311584650).jpg, Ariel view of the AA Highway southern spur in Grayson County File:AA Highway KY 10.jpg, AA Highway eastern spur in Greenup County

Numbering changes

The AA Highway including the Greenup spur was originally designated as KY 546, and the Grayson spur was signed as KY 694. On May 26, 1988, the designation, "AA Highway", was proposed to be signed along with KY 546 and KY 694. A few years later, this designation was put in place with the AA Highway being co-signed with KY 546 and KY 694, however, many motorists were soon confused by the ever-changing designations. To solve this issue, the AA Highway was renumbered in late 1995. The AA Highway including the Grayson spur was renumbered KY 9, and the Greenup spur was renumbered as KY 10. KY 10 also overlaps portions of the AA Highway throughout the entire highway's existence. Old KY 9 in Campbell County was renumbered as KY 915, and old KY 10 between Vanceburg and South Portsmouth was redesignated as KY 8.

Major intersections

Mainline AA Highway

Southern spur (KY 9 to I-64)

Eastern spur (KY 10)

References

{{Named Roads in Kentucky State highways in Kentucky Transportation in Lewis County, Kentucky Transportation in Mason County, Kentucky Transportation in Bracken County, Kentucky Transportation in Pendleton County, Kentucky Transportation in Campbell County, Kentucky Transportation in Carter County, Kentucky Transportation in Greenup County, Kentucky