Bluegrass Parkway
The Martha Layne Collins Blue Grass Parkway is a freeway running from Elizabethtown, Kentucky to Woodford County, Kentucky, for a length of 71.134 miles. It intersects with Interstate [65 (Kentucky)|Interstate 65] at its western terminus, and U.S. [Route 60 in Kentucky|U.S. Route 60] at its eastern terminus. It is one of seven highways that are part of the Kentucky parkway system. The road is designated unsigned Kentucky Route 9002. It is constructed similar to the Interstate Highway system, though sections do not measure up to current Interstate standards.
History
As a toll road
In 1963, the Kentucky Turnpike Authority recommended what was then known as the "Central Kentucky Turnpike" be constructed from Elizabethtown to the Lexington-Frankfort area. The parkway was opened in November 1965 as the Kentucky Bluegrass Parkway and was originally a toll road, as were all Kentucky parkways. The parkway route largely parallels that of U.S. Route 62. State law requires that toll collection ceases when enough tolls are collected to pay off the parkway's construction bonds which occurred in 1991.Toll plazas and charges
The table below shows the locations of the former toll plazas, and toll charges that were previously charged for consumer-sized, or class 1 vehicles.Name changes
In 2003, the road was renamed in honor of Martha Layne Collins, the first female governor of Kentucky. Previously, it was the Kentucky Bluegrass parkway, then later renamed the "Blue Grass Parkway", and often called the "BG Parkway" because of the abbreviation once used on its original signs from 1965 until they were replaced by a shield with the Collins name in 2003.Route description
The parkway begins in Hardin County, at a trumpet interchange with I-65 near Elizabethtown. It traverses Nelson, northern Washington, northern Mercer, southern Anderson, and Woodford counties, passing Bardstown, Lawrenceburg, and ending just east of Versailles at US-60, where high-speed ramps allow traffic to continue to Lexington via US-60 eastbound.The toll plazas, which were removed in 1991, were located at the following locations:
- Exit 10 at Boston
- Exit 34 at Bloomfield, and
- Exit 59 at Lawrenceburg.