Hal Rogers Parkway

Hal Rogers Parkway
Route information
Length:	59.088 mi[1] (95.093 km)
Major junctions
West end:	US 27 / Cumberland Parkway in Somerset
East end:	KY 15 / KY 80 near Hazard
Location
Counties:	Laurel, Clay, Leslie, Perry
Highway system
Highways in Kentucky Interstate US State Parkways

The Hal Rogers Parkway, formerly named the Daniel Boone Parkway, connects Somerset 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 75.16, 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

The Hal Rogers Parkway previously used a brown shield.

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.^[2]

The toll booths were dismantled soon after the tolls were removed on June 1 of 2003, and new Hal Rogers Parkway signs replaced the Daniel Boone Parkway signs. 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 at Exit 34 and 44, from the western terminus at US 25 to KY 192, totaling four-miles (6 km), and from milepost 58 to Exit 59.

Future

Interstate 66

The parkway was designated as part of the "Future Interstate 66 Corridor", a proposed four-lane Interstate utilizing the existing Cumberland and Hal Rogers parkways, among other routes, running east–west across the southern part of Kentucky. It cannot be signed as an Interstate until it has permanent connections to the east and west. The eastern connection has not been determined, in part, because the King Coal Highway in West Virginia is being built as a corridor-standard roadway for US 52. When further studies were made for the new I-66 corridor, plans were changed to make no modifications to the parkway but instead to create an entirely new Interstate corridor parallel to the parkway but merging near the east end to create a southern bypass at Hazard where it will then continue east. Rumors and suggestions were made to completely replace the parkway name and number to an upgraded KY 80 giving the present lower standard KY 80 a completely new three- or four-digit number (not taking the KY 9006 number). No plans have been made regarding that action. As of 2005 the plans for I-66 through Kentucky had been shelved by the KYTC.

Major intersections

From US 27/Cumberland Parkway in Somerset, the Hal Rogers Parkway is a four-lane, at-grade highway. East of KY 192, 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
Pulaski	Somerset	0.000	0.000	0A-B	US 27 / Cumberland Parkway west	Cloverleaf interchange; continues as Cumberland Parkway
Laurel	London	1.111	1.788		I-75 / US 25 / KY 80	Signed as exits 1A-B for I-75 and 1C-D for US 25
		1.766	2.842		KY 1769 south	Northern terminus of KY 1769
		1.089	1.753		KY 30 north / KY 354 south	Southern terminus of KY 30; northern terminus of KY 354
		2.250	3.621		KY 638
		3.010	4.844		KY 472
		3.877	6.239		KY 192 west	Eastern terminus of KY 192; eastern end of at-grade highway and western end of limited-access highway
Clay	Manchester	20.437	32.890	20	KY 80 – London, Manchester
	Hector				KY 873	at-grade intersection
	Big Creek	33.804	54.402	34	KY 66	At-grade intersection; formerly exit 34
Leslie	Thousandsticks	44.188	71.114	44	KY 118 south	At-grade intersection; formerly exit 44; northern terminus of KY 118
Perry	​	56.428	90.812	56	KY 451 – Hazard
	Hazard	59.088	95.093	59	KY 15 / KY 80 – Hazard, Jackson
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

1. "Kentucky Transportation Cabinet - Division of Planning - Highway Information System Official Milepoint Route Log Extract". Retrieved 2007-04-08.
2. "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: Bing / Google

• Hal Rogers Parkway at KentuckyRoads.com
• Photographs of the Hal Rogers Parkway at H.B. Elkin's Millennium Highway