Hal Rogers Parkway
| |
|---|---|
| Route information | |
| Length | 59.088 mi[1] (95.093 km) |
| Major junctions | |
| West end |
   |
| East end |
 |
| Location | |
| Counties | Laurel, Clay, Leslie, Perry |
| Highway system | |
The Hal Rogers Parkway, formerly named the Daniel Boone Parkway, connects London 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 to be 65.70 miles (105.73 km) instead of today's 62.90, with that mileage to have been used on a limited-access London bypass. This, however, was not completed. The road is designated unsigned Kentucky Route 9006 (HR 9006).
History
As a toll road
The then-Daniel Boone Parkway, as with all eight of the other parkways, was originally a toll road from its 1971 opening until 2003. [2][3]
Toll removal and renaming
By Kentucky state law, toll collection ceases when enough toll has been collected or funds received from other sources, such as a legislative appropriation, to pay off the construction bonds for the parkway.
The toll booths were dismantled soon after the tolls were removed on June 1, 2003, and new Hal Rogers Parkway signs replaced the Daniel Boone Parkway signs sometime later in the same year. The two at-grade toll booths at exits 34 and 44 were converted into regular intersections and the mainline toll booth near London was dismantled. It is the only parkway in the state of Kentucky to be almost exclusively two-lanes with the occasional truck lanes on the hills. There is a center paint divider with rumble strips added as a safety feature.
The only at-grade intersections are located at Exit 34 and 44 in Clay and Leslie Counties, respectively, along with the stretch of parkway from the western terminus at US 25 to KY 192, totaling 4 miles (6.4 km) in Laurel County, and from milepost 58 to Exit 59 in Perry County near Hazard.
Renaming controversy
U.S. Representative Hal Rogers was the forerunner in getting the tolls lifted on the Daniel Boone Parkway, securing $13 million in federal funding. Former governor Paul E. Patton, to thank him for removing the tolls on the highway, renamed the Daniel Boone Parkway the Hal Rogers Parkway. This stirred a lot of controversy among Kentucky residents and descendants of Daniel Boone who were offended that the famous pioneer, who helped settle Kentucky, was renamed for a sitting congressman whose main accomplishment was getting the tolls lifted off of the parkway. Soon after, the Associated Press picked up the controversy regarding the renaming of the parkway and outrage over the renaming has been heard across the United States and as far as the United Kingdom.[4]
Major intersections
From I-75/US 25/KY 80 to KY 30 in London, the Hal Rogers Parkway is a four-lane, at-grade highway. East of KY 30, the parkway narrows to two lanes and becomes a grade-separated, limited-access highway except for intersections at the former locations of toll barriers along the road. In Hazard, the parkway intersects three local streets at-grade before terminating at KY 15/KY 80.
| County | Location | mi[1] | km | Exit | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laurel | London | 0.000 | 0.000 | | ||
| 0.766 | 1.233 |  | Northern terminus of KY 1769 | |||
| 1.089 | 1.753 |   | Southern terminus of KY 30; northern terminus of KY 354; eastern end of at-grade highway and western end of limited-access highway | |||
| 2.250 | 3.621 |  | ||||
| 3.010 | 4.844 |  | ||||
| 3.877 | 6.239 |  | Eastern terminus of KY 192 | |||
| Clay | Manchester | 20.437 | 32.890 | 20 | | |
| Hector |  | at-grade intersection | ||||
| Big Creek | 33.804 | 54.402 | 34 |  | At-grade intersection; formerly exit 34 | |
| Leslie | Thousandsticks | 44.188 | 71.114 | 44 |  | At-grade intersection; formerly exit 44; northern terminus of KY 118 |
| Perry | | 56.428 | 90.812 | 56 |  | |
| Hazard | 59.088 | 95.093 | 59 | | ||
| 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi | ||||||
References
- 1 2 "Kentucky Transportation Cabinet - Division of Planning - Highway Information System Official Milepoint Route Log Extract". Archived from the original on 2007-04-30. Retrieved 2007-04-08.
- ↑ Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (1998). Kentucky Official Highway Map (PDF) (Map). Scale not given. Frankfort: Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Parkways and Toll Rates table (lower right-hand corner) inset.
- ↑ Rand McNally (2002). "Kentucky" (Map). The Road Atlas (2002 ed.). 1 in≈30 mi. Chicago: Rand McNally. p. 43.
- ↑ "Debate over renaming Daniel Boone Parkway opens new frontiers". St. Petersburg Times. Associated Press. August 7, 2003. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
External links
Route map: