William H. Natcher Parkway

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William H. Natcher Parkway
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Natcher Parkway highlighted in red
Route information
Length: 72.184 mi[1] (116.169 km)
Existed: 1972 – 2019
History: <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Completed in 1972
  • Re-designated as I-165 in from I-65 to US-60/US-231 in 2019; section from I-65 to US-231 designated as KY-9007
Major junctions
South end: US 231 south of Bowling Green
  <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
North end: US 60 / US 231 in Owensboro
Location
Counties: Warren, Butler, Ohio, Daviess
Highway system

The William H. Natcher Green River Parkway was the designation for a freeway that runs from Bowling Green to Owensboro in the US state of Kentucky. The Natcher Parkway was one of nine highways that were a part of Kentucky's parkway system. The portion north of Interstate 65 (I-65) was signed as I-165, and the portion south of I-65 as Kentucky Route 9007 (KY 9007) on March 6, 2019.

Route description

The parkway began at an interchange with US Route 231 (US 231) south of I-65 (exit 20) near Bowling Green. It traveled along the west side of the city in a northwesterly direction, through rolling farmlands and near coal mines, for 72.2 miles (116.2 km) before meeting its northern terminus at an interchange with US 60 in Owensboro. At exit 43, the parkway intersected with the Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway. The Natcher Parkway bypassed the cities of Morgantown, Beaver Dam and Hartford.[2] The parkway carried the unsigned designation of Kentucky Route 9007 (WN 9007).

History

I-65 at the William H. Natcher Parkway south of Bowling Green in 2007
The Natcher Parkway previously used a shield featuring the Kentucky State Capitol from its 1994 renaming until 2007.

Conceived as the "Owensboro–Bowling Green Parkway." it was instead named the Green River Parkway when it opened on December 15, 1972. It was renamed William H. Natcher Parkway in 1994 following the death of William H. Natcher, a United States Congressman who represented the Second District of Kentucky for three decades. Natcher is best known for his record-setting string of 18,401 roll call votes, even being wheeled in on a hospital gurney to vote shortly before his death.

Glen Lily overpass

In 1973, the Glen Lily Road (KY 2665) overpass over the parkway was awarded the title of "Most Beautiful Bridge" by the American Institute of Steel Construction in the Highway Grade Separation category.[3]

Additional interchange and name combinations

The first added interchange built for the Natcher Parkway was the KY 70 interchange (exit 27, now exit 29) near Morgantown. Constructed in the 1999-2000 fiscal year, it was built to provide access to the city's industrial district.[4]

In 2006, the old and new names were combined into the current name, in order to be consistent with most of the state's other parkways, all of which (except for the Audubon Parkway) had their original names changed in the same manner to honor various Kentucky politicians. However, the newly designed marker signs that were installed on the Natcher Parkway in mid-2006 did not bear the words "Green River".

Toll removal

On November 21, 2006, toll plazas on the Natcher were removed. State law requires that toll collection cease when enough tolls are collected to pay off the parkway's construction bonds. The Natcher and the nearby Audubon Parkway, were the last two roads in the Kentucky parkway system to have their tolls removed.

Prior to the removal of the tolls, toll plazas were located at exit 7 (later exit 9) in Bowling Green, exit 34 (later exit 36) in Cromwell–Morgantown, and exit 48 (later exit 50) in Hartford. Motorists traveling between the I-65 exit and exit 7 in the Bowling Green area were not charged a toll.[5]

Natcher Parkway Extension

In November 2011, the Natcher was extended by an additional 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from I-65 southward to US 231 (Scottsville Road) on the south side of Bowling Green. This was done to provide some relief for traffic on Scottsville Road as that roadway is the busiest thoroughfare in the city.[6] The project also included a new interchange for KY 622 near Plano, at milepost one.

Interstate 66

The East–West Trans America Highway was proposed in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 and was narrowed down to the I-66 Southern Kentucky Corridor in the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995:<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

In 1995, the National Highway System Designation Act amended Section 1105 (c) (3) of ISTEA and in Kentucky listed I-66 as centered on the cities of Pikeville, Jenkins, Hazard, London, Somerset, Columbia, Bowling Green, Hopkinsville, Benton and Paducah. The Southern Kentucky Corridor (I-66) would connect with the proposed King Coal Highway (also called I-73 / 74 North-South Corridor) in West Virginia as listed in Section 1105 (c) (5) in ISTEA (1991).

The preferred I-66 route followed US 68 between Bowling Green and Hopkinsville, however the I-66 spur along the Natcher Parkway eventually entered the highway plans. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) finished its feasibility study of the I-66 project in 2005 and concluded that I-66 was not cost beneficial for the foreseeable future to justify its construction or any further study, thereby cancelling the state of Kentucky's participation in the I-66 project. The only remaining study of I-66 was conducted by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) under the 66 Corridor Study, a Tier 1 Environmental Impact Study. This study was cancelled August 6, 2015, by IDOT and subsequently the FHWA announced the cancellation of the Tier 1 Environmental Impact Study in the Federal Register, ending the last I-66 project and therefore officially cancelling the I-66 Trans America Highway.

Decommissioning

The William H. Natcher Parkway designation was decommissioned in favor of a new Interstate Highway number along most of its length. I-165 is the designation north of I-65, while Kentucky Route 9007 (KY 9007) is the designation of the parkway south of it. In early 2016, funding was set aside to rebuild and restore sections of the parkway to Interstate Highway standards.[7] From July to August 2017, construction consisting of shoulder work, draining and repaving was completed. Additional work took place along the entirety of the parkway. In July 2018, major modernization upgrades began in the Warren County section, consisting of ramp extensions, guardrail replacement, LED lighting upgrades and bridge wall replacement. Traffic flow was restricted to one lane, wide loads were prohibited, and the speed limit set to 55 miles per hour (89 km/h). This work continued through the end of 2018. The US 231 interchange (exit 9) will be partially or completely revamped, and several interchange designs are being considered, including a dual-roundabout system. A new interchange will likely be constructed between the mile markers 3.4 and 4, allowing access to Elrod Road in Bowling Green.[8]

The presumed number for the parkway was I-565,[9] but on September 24, 2017, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials' Special Committee on U.S. Route Numbering approved the Natcher Parkway as I-165 instead.[10]

On September 5, 2018, it was announced that the entire parkway would be signed with I-165 shields by the end of 2019, even before completion of the parkway's upgrades, thus officially bringing it to Interstate status.[11][12][13] After crews began posting the updated signage, the highway was officially designated I-165 on March 6, 2019.[11][14] In 2018, Representative Suzanne Miles of Owensboro introduced a bill that would have given the highway an honorary designation of "William H. Natcher Expressway", but the bill did not make it out of committee.[15]

Exit list

County Location mi[1] km Exit Destinations Notes
Warren Bowling Green 0.000 0.000 US 231 (Scottsville Road) – Bowling Green, Scottsville
1.000 1.609 1 KY 622 – Bowling Green, Plano
2.000 3.219 2 I-65 – Louisville, Nashville (TN) I-65 exits 20A-B; signed as exits 2A and 2B
5.572 8.967 6 US 31W – Bowling Green, Franklin To Western Kentucky University
6.969 11.216 7 US 68 / KY 80 – Bowling Green, Russellville
9.422 15.163 9 US 231 – Bowling Green, Morgantown
Butler Morgantown 28.147 45.298 28 US 231 / KY 79 – Morgantown Southern end of US 231 Truck/KY 79 Truck concurrency
29.428 47.360 29 KY 70 (Veterans Way) – Morgantown, Rochester Northern end of US 231 Truck/KY 79 Truck concurrency
​ 35.845 57.687 36 US 231 – Cromwell, Morgantown
Ohio ​ 43.270 69.636 43 Western Kentucky Parkway – Elizabethtown, Paducah Signed as exits 43A and 43B
Hartford 49.796 80.139 50 KY 69 – Beaver Dam, Hartford
Daviess Owensboro 72.184 116.169 72 US 60 (Wendell H. Ford Expressway) / US 231 to Audubon Parkway – Hawesville, Henderson, Owensboro Signed as exits 72A and 72B; northbound only; to Ben Hawes Golf Course and Park
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ KentuckyRoads.com -- Glen Lily Overpass[self-published source]
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ http://transportation.ky.gov/Program-Management/Documents/2016RecommendedProjectListing.pdf
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Eggers, Caroline (February 19, 2019). Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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