Interstate 65 in Kentucky
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Route information | ||||
Maintained by Kentucky Transportation Cabinet | ||||
Length | 137.32 mi[1] (221.00 km) | |||
Existed | 1956–present | |||
NHS | Entire route | |||
Major junctions | ||||
South end | ![]() | |||
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North end | ![]() | |||
Location | ||||
Country | United States | |||
State | Kentucky | |||
Highway system | ||||
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In the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky, Interstate 65 enters the state 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Franklin. It passes by the major cities of Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, and Louisville before exiting the state.
Route description
Throughout its length, it passes Mammoth Cave National Park, Bernheim Forest, the National Corvette Museum and the Fort Knox Military Reservation.
It junctions with the four parkways. The first major junction is with the William H. Natcher Parkway at Bowling Green, followed by the Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway north of the city between Smiths Grove and Park City. At Elizabethtown, it has two more parkway interchanges with the Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway and the Martha Layne Collins Bluegrass Parkway. Interstate 65 also has interchanges with I-265, I-264, I-64 and I-71.
The widest stretch of Interstate 65 in its entirety is in Louisville at the Kentucky Route 1065 (Outer Loop), where the mainline is 14 lanes wide. It crosses the Ohio River into Indiana on the Abraham Lincoln Bridge, while southbound I-65 traffic enters Kentucky from Indiana on the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/I-65_in_Kentucky.jpg/220px-I-65_in_Kentucky.jpg)
Both of the Ford Motor Company truck plants in Louisville are accessible—the Louisville Assembly Plant, which currently builds the Escape SUV, is directly accessible from I-65, while Kentucky Truck Assembly, makers of the F250+ and Expedition/Navigator SUV, is accessed via I-265.
Worldport, UPS' main worldwide air cargo hub and sorting facility, is located at Louisville International Airport, the seventh busiest cargo airport in the world[2] and adjacent to Interstate 65 at MM 128-131.
In Bowling Green, I-65 comes within proximity of a GM plant which makes the Chevrolet Corvette sports car, as well as the adjacent National Corvette Museum.
The highway crosses between the Central and Eastern Time Zones at the border of Hart and LaRue Counties, respectively.
Through 2016, the Ohio River Bridges Project is constructing a new 6-lane Cable-stayed bridge (eventually all-Northbound) at Louisville and rebuilding the I-65/I-64/I-71 convergence interchange just south of I-65's existing (1963) John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge, to become 6-lanes all-Southbound after completion of the new bridge and the Kennedy Bridge re-hab. Another 4-lane Cable-stayed bridge is also under construction 12 miles upstream on the Ohio, to complete the I-265 loop around fast-growing urbanized Louisville.
History
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Kentucky_Turnpike_shield.png/100px-Kentucky_Turnpike_shield.png)
From July 25, 1954 until June 30, 1975, the portion from the outskirts of Louisville to Elizabethtown was a toll road bearing the Kentucky Turnpike name. It was signed with a distinctive sign featuring a cardinal, the state bird of Kentucky. Unlike most states, Kentucky law requires that tolls be removed when the original construction bonds are paid off. The road was thus the first of the state's extensive system of toll roads to be made free.[3] Unlike the other roads, which maintain their separate names when becoming toll-free, the Kentucky Turnpike signs were removed. It is today almost impossible to find any traces of its former toll status; even the old trumpet interchanges characteristic of toll roads have been removed and replaced with diamond interchanges characteristic of a free Limited access highway.[citation needed]
On November 15, 2006, the stretch of I-65 from Bowling Green to Louisville was renamed the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Highway.[4]
On February 12, 2007, a bill passed the Kentucky Senate to rename I-65 in Jefferson County the "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway".[5] Signage was posted July 25, 2007.[6]
On July 15, 2007, Kentucky officially raised its speed limits on Interstate and State Parkway Highways to 70 miles per hour (110 km/h). Until that date, Kentucky was the only state along I-65's path that had a speed limit of 65 mph (105 km/h).[7]
In 2008, Governor Steve Beshear ordered the entire route to be widened to a minimum of six lanes through the entire state. As of 2016,the majority of this project is complete.
Exit list
County | Location | mi[8] | km | Exit | Destinations | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Simpson | | 0.00 | 0.00 | ![]() | ||
| 1.980 | 3.187 | 2 | ![]() | ||
| 5.979 | 9.622 | 6 | ![]() | ||
Warren | | 20.568 | 33.101 | 20 | ![]() | Signed 20A (south) and 20B (north) |
Bowling Green | 22.388 | 36.030 | 22 | ![]() | ||
| 25.732 | 41.412 | 26 | ![]() | ||
Bowling Green | 28.066 | 45.168 | 28 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||
Oakland | 35.631 | 57.343 | 36 | ![]() ![]() | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | |
Smiths Grove | 37.578 | 60.476 | 38 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||
Barren | | 43.135 | 69.419 | 43 | ![]() | Cumberland Parkway exit 0 |
Park City | 47.371 | 76.236 | 48 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | Serves Mammoth Cave National Park | |
Cave City | 52.423 | 84.367 | 53 | ![]() ![]() | Serves Mammoth Cave National Park | |
Hart | | 57.627 | 92.742 | 58 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
Munfordville | 64.200 | 103.320 | 65 | ![]() | ||
| 70.407 | 113.309 | 71 | ![]() | ||
LaRue | Upton | 75.896 | 122.143 | 76 | ![]() | |
Hardin | Sonora | 80.457 | 129.483 | 81 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
| 85.686 | 137.898 | 86 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||
Elizabethtown | 91.086 | 146.589 | 91 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | Southbound exit to Dixie Avenue,Serves Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park; WKP exit 137 | |
93.345 | 150.224 | 93 | ![]() | |||
94.154 | 151.526 | 94 | ![]() ![]() | |||
| 102.533 | 165.011 | 102 | ![]() | ||
Bullitt | Lebanon Junction | 104.698 | 168.495 | 105 | ![]() | |
| 111.773 | 179.881 | 112 | ![]() | ||
Shepherdsville | 115.574 | 185.998 | 116 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||
116.639 | 187.712 | 117 | ![]() | |||
| 121.722 | 195.893 | 121 | ![]() | ||
Jefferson | | 125.143 | 201.398 | 125 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | I-265 exit 10; signed as exits 125A (east) & 125B (west) northbound. |
| 126.746 | 203.978 | 127 | ![]() | Southbound split exit (east) and (west) | |
Louisville | 128.328 | 206.524 | 128 | ![]() | ||
129.802 | 208.896 | 130 | ![]() | |||
130.710 | 210.357 | 131A | ![]() ![]() | I-264 exit 12; signed as exits 131A (east) and 131B (west) southbound. | ||
130.792 | 210.489 | 131B | Kentucky Exposition Center | |||
132.601 | 213.401 | 132 | ![]() | No access back to I-65 Northbound (must use exit 133 from Warnock Street) | ||
132.955 | 213.970 | 133 | ![]() ![]() | No access from I-65 Southbound to (Eastern Parkway,must use Arthur Street)or back to I-65 northbound (must use Warnock Street for I-65 North) | ||
133.767 | 215.277 | 134 | ![]() ![]() | South end of KY 61 overlap; no northbound exit to Preston Street | ||
133.978 | 215.617 | 134A | ![]() ![]() | North end of KY 61 overlap; northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
134.145 | 215.885 | 134B | Woodbine Street | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
134.675 | 216.738 | 135 | St. Catherine Street west | |||
135.195– 135.384 | 217.575– 217.879 | 136A | Chestnut Street, Broadway (US 150) | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
135.649 | 218.306 | 136B | Brook Street | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
135.649– 135.919 | 218.306– 218.740 | 136C | Muhammad Ali Boulevard, Jefferson Street – Downtown Louisville | Signed northbound as exit 136C | ||
136.421 | 219.548 | 137 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | I-64 exit 5; I-71 exit 1 | ||
Ohio River | 137.318 | 220.992 | John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge (southbound) Abraham Lincoln Bridge (northbound) ![]() | |||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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Auxiliary routes
I-265: Forms part of an incomplete beltway around Metro Louisville. The signage runs from I-65 to I-71 on the northeast side of the Metro. It is cosigned with KY 841 for its entire length and is known as the Gene Snyder Freeway. Construction is under way on an East End Bridge over the Ohio River to connect the Kentucky segment of I-265 with the Indiana segment.
See also
References
- ^ Federal Highway Administration (2002-10-31). "FHWA Route Log and Finder List: Table 1". Retrieved 2009-02-24.
- ^ "Table 2 – TOTAL CARGO TRAFFIC 2013 - Preliminary World Airport Traffic and Rankings 2013 - High Growth Dubai Moves Up to 7th Busiest Airport - Mar 31, 2014". Airports Council International. March 31, 2014. Retrieved 2014-07-06.
- ^ Kleber, John E., ed. (1992). "Rivers". The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Associate editors: Thomas D. Clark, Lowell H. Harrison, and James C. Klotter. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-1772-0.
- ^ "Interstate 65". Travel Mammoth Cave National Park: Guide and Map. MobileReference. 2010. ISBN 1-6050-1034-0.
- ^ Gerth, Joseph (2007-02-13). "Senate OKs renaming I-65 for King". The Courier-Journal.
- ^ Shafer, Sheldon S. (2007-07-25). "Mayor, Democrats back I-65 King plan". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved 2007-07-30.
- ^ "Governor Fletcher Signs Speed Limit Bill" (Press release). Commonwealth of Kentucky. March 21, 2007. Retrieved March 22, 2007.
- ^ Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, HIS Expanded Milepoint Route Log Extract, updated 2007-12-22 Template:Wayback
- Interstate 65
- Interstate Highways in Kentucky
- Transportation in Louisville, Kentucky
- Transportation in Barren County, Kentucky
- Transportation in Bullitt County, Kentucky
- Transportation in Edmonson County, Kentucky
- Transportation in Hardin County, Kentucky
- Transportation in Hart County, Kentucky
- Transportation in Jefferson County, Kentucky
- Transportation in LaRue County, Kentucky
- Transportation in Simpson County, Kentucky
- Transportation in Warren County, Kentucky