Cities: Paducah, Kuttawa, Eddyville, Oak Gr

Major bridges:

Companion surface roads: US 45, US 62, KY 93, Biz US 68, US 68, KY 117, US 41A

I-24 is haphazardly cocked to one corner of Kentucky - running northwest to I-57 in Pulleys Mill, IL, and southeast to Nashville and to I-75 in Chattanooga, TN. By the late '90s, Kentucky received its only Interstate business loop - Biz I-24, which uses surface streets into Paducah - but this doesn't show up on official logs or state-printed maps and appears to be posted by the county or city.

64

Begin KY maint: IN state line (Ohio River), 4.4 mi W of downtown Louisville
End KY maint: WV state line (Big Sandy River), 2.1 mi SE of Catlettsburg city line

185.199 mi in KY:

Uses: I-75 (Lexington)

Cities: Louisville, St Matthews, Jeffersontown, Shelbyville, Midway, Lexington, Winchester, Morehead, Grayson

Names: Riverside Exp (begin-I 71, Louisville)

Major bridges:

Tunnels: Cochran Hill Tnl (Louisville)

Companion surface roads: none (begin-I 264); KY 3082 (E); KY 3064, KY 3217 (W); US 150; US 60; US 421; US 60

Of great importance to Kentuckians, I-64 continues west from Louisville through St. Louis and to SEC K in suburban O'Fallon, MO. On the east, I-64 continues to Charleston, WV, and Richmond and Norfolk, VA, to its end at I-664 in Chesapeake, VA. It's handy, ain't it? (However, I-64 does not enter Frankfort city limits.)

I-64 makes its entry into Kentucky via the beautiful Sherman Minton Bridge from New Albany, IN. This double-decker span features the eastbound lanes on the bottom and the westbound lanes on the top.

65

Begin KY maint: TN state line, 4.3 mi NW of Black Jack
End KY maint: .185 mi past IN state line (Ohio River), Jeffersonville IN

137.318 mi in KY:

Cities: Bowling Green, Park City, Cave City, Munfordville, Sonora, Elizabethtown, Lebanon Jct, Shepherdsville, Louisville

Names:

Major bridges: John F Kennedy Br (Ohio River, Louisville)

Companion surface roads: US 31W, KY 61, none (KY 61-KY 61), KY 61, US 31E, US 31

A major force in Interstatedom, I-65 from Elizabethtown to Louisville was the Kentucky Turnpike - a toll road like the state parkways - from its 1956 opening to 1975. I-65 continues north from Louisville to Indianapolis and to I-90 in Gary, IN. On the south it runs to Nashville, Birmingham, Montgomery, and to I-10 in Mobile, AL.

66

I-66 doesn't exist in Kentucky but an official map marks it as a future route. A proposal in the '80s would have run I-66 from Paducah to Lexington, mostly on existing parkways, then along I-64 - eventually connecting to the existing I-66 in Virginia. The current proposal demands running I-66 on a new freeway from Wickliffe to Paducah, then on I-24, the Western Kentucky and Natcher parkways, I-65, the Louie B. Nunn Parkway, and a new freeway paralleling KY 80 and the Hal Rogers Parkway and running to the state line near Phelps. It is doubtful that I-66 will be found in Kentucky in my lifetime.

69

Doesn't exist in Kentucky except as a future Interstate marked on an official map. A new I-69 from Brownsville, TX, to the existing I-69 in Indianapolis is esteemed by talking heads of the press - as if the country isn't already paved over enough. But the Kentucky portion will require hardly any new construction, as I-69 is proposed along the Julian M. Carroll Parkway, I-24, the Western Kentucky and Breathitt parkways, and the near-freeway US 41.

71

Begin: I-64, 2.3 mi E of downtown Louisville
End KY maint: I-75, .5 mi N of Walton city line (leaves KY using I-75)

77.724 mi in KY:

Cities: Louisville, Northfield, Crestwood, La Grange

Names: Riverside Exp (Jefferson Co)

Major bridges: Kentucky River, Carroll Co

Companion surface roads: US 42, KY 22, KY 146, KY 153, US 42, KY 338

I-71 runs from Louisville to Cleveland and piggybacks on I-75 from Walton, KY, to Cincinnati - where it splits from I-75 and forms Fort Washington Way, a freeway on the south side of downtown. Fort Washington Way was long criticized by the media and business sector because it was supposedly too unattractive to encourage commerce downtown. Boo hoo! They even proposed routing I-71 east on I-275 and north on I-471, putting additional strain on roads that already carried more traffic than they were built to handle. We in Campbell County despised the proposal, but we were at the mercy of Corporate America. A costly reconstruction of Fort Washington Way that took years to complete was launched instead, and this downtown freeway is now known for those odd spires that were added to 2 overpasses. One feasible but expensive proposal calls for building a park on a new level of land over Fort Washington Way - which would make that part of I-71 a cut-and-cover tunnel. I-71 continues from Cincinnati to Columbus and ends at I-90 in Cleveland.

75

Begin KY maint: TN state line, 3.6 mi SE of Fairview [Whitley Co]
End KY maint: OH state line (Ohio River), Covington

191.777 mi in KY:

Cities: Williamsburg, Corbin, London, Mt Vernon, Berea, Richmond, Lexington, Georgetown, Williamstown, Dry Ridge, Crittenden, Walton, Florence, Erlanger, Crestview Hills, Crescent Sprs, Ft Mitchell, Ft Wright, Park Hills, Covington

Major bridges:

Companion surface roads: US 25W, US 25, KY 2328, US 25

Though not pictured here, a highlight of I-75 is the Brent Spence Bridge from Covington to Cincinnati, noted for the fact that it has 2 stories, with the southbound lanes on top. This bridge is over capacity and must soon be painfully replaced.

I-75 continues from Cincinnati north to Dayton, Toledo, Detroit, and Flint, and to its ending at the Canadian border in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. South of Kentucky, I-75 goes to Knoxville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Macon, around Tampa, and to FL 826 & 924 in Hialeah, FL, outside Miami. War on Drugs exploiters like to blame I-75 for drug trafficking, earning it the unappealing sobriquet of Cocaine Lane. I-75 in Northern Kentucky is known for being perpetually under construction: The so-called Death Hill stretch in Covington was completely rebuilt, and in the suburbs I-75 was r00ined by having its cloverleaf exits reduced to diamond-shaped ones - not to mention the knocking down of all those houses to eliminate a measly curve in Fort Mitchell. Except for creation of the original roadway, the reconstruction of Death Hill and the Fort Mitchell curve was the most expensive road project ever in Northern Kentucky. Despite this, both the Death Hill and Fort Mitchell phases of this project were soon followed by sharp increases in the number of wrecks. (Cincinnati Enquirer 11/12/2000) Later, truck accidents nearly doubled between 2003 and 2006. (Cincinnati Post 1/11/2007)

A couple of isolated surface streets in Covington are marked with new-looking signs as Alt I-75, but this doesn't appear to be the state's designation.

175

Never existed in Kentucky. I-175 was an extremely costly road proposed by the George W. Bush regime to run from Chattanooga, TN, to Lexington - duplicating what I-75 already did.

264

Begin: I-64, 3.5 mi W of downtown Louisville
End: I-71, .1 mi N of Northfield city line, Louisville

22.927 mi, all Jefferson

Cities: Louisville, Shively, Beechwood Village, St Matthews, Northfield

Names:

Companion surface roads: bypasses Louisville

What is now I-264 from US 31W on the southwest to US 60 on the east was built around 1948 as a US 60 bypass around Louisville - Kentucky's first freeway. It was originally KY 738, however. On occasion, this has been labeled on maps as US 60 - although US 60 actually goes downtown. The rest of I-264 was completed in 1974.

265

Begin: I-65, 3.4 mi SW of Okolona, Louisville (bec KY 841)
End: I-71, 1.3 mi W of Worthington, Louisville (bec KY 841)

24.477 mi, all Jefferson

Cities: Louisville, Middletown

Names: Gene Snyder Frwy

Companion surface roads: bypasses Louisville

Named for an ultraconservative congressman, the Gene Snyder Freeway was completed to its current length around 1987 as an outer bypass around Louisville. It runs for 37 miles from US 31W in the southwest to US 42 in the northeast - but only the 24-mile section between I-65 and I-71 is numbered I-265, as the remainder of the freeway is KY 841. (The entire route was KY 841 before I-265 was formally designated in late '87.) A 5-mile gap exists in I-265 from its northeast end to north of Jeffersonville, IN - where I-265 continues west to I-64. A bridge over the Ohio River linking Kentucky and Indiana isn't schedulted for completion until 2018!

The Gene Snyder Freeway was originally known as the Jefferson Freeway. A parody of Snyder's goofy campaign song went, "Don't vote for Gene Snyder...He's a right-wing congressman...You know just where he stands...Let's throw him in the garbage can!"

275

Forms complete loop around Cincinnati OH, with mileposts beginning at I-75 in Erlanger and continuing clockwise back to beginning; or:

Begin: I-75, Erlanger
End KY maint: IN state line (Ohio River), 3.6 mi NW of Idlewild
Resume KY maint: .019 mi past OH state line (Ohio River), Cincinnati OH
End: beginning point

24.577 mi in KY:

Cities: Ft Thomas, Highland Hts, Wilder, Taylor Mill, Covington, Ft Wright, Edgewood, Ft Mitchell, Crestview Hills, Erlanger

Major bridges:

Companion surface roads: bypasses Cincinnati OH

Am I the only person who thinks I-275 is shaped like Snoopy's head?

At 84 miles, I-275 is the longest complete loop in the U.S. Scuttlebutt has it that it's the only 3-digit Interstate to cover 3 states. (In the mid-'90s, a pipe dream of a 225-mile circumferential Interstate linking the likes of Owenton, KY; Greensburg, IN; Middletown, OH; and Maysville, KY, was announced, but the idea was scrapped because it was about as popular as a canker sore.) Mileposts on I-275 begin at I-75 in Erlanger and increase clockwise around Cincinnati. I-275 briefly enters Indiana and continues the loop through Ohio (where it's known as the Donald H. Rolf Circle Freeway) before returning to Kentucky using the Combs-Hehl Bridge.

Highlights of I-275 from its reentry to Kentucky to the completion of the loop at I-75:

• An exit to KY 8 was proposed but never built.
• What is reportedly the highest bridge in the Cincinnati area is the US 27 overpass over I-275 in my original hometown of Highland Heights. Often called the IGA Viaduct because of its proximity to a now-defunct store, you can probably drop Max Headroom from it and not have to worry about him ever again. (I use Max Headroom as an example because he's a fictional person and can't sue me for allegedly encouraging you to drop him from an overpass.)
• The exit with I-471 is a notorious waste of space that ravaged Highland Heights.
• The partial exit to Three Mile Road was built around 1983, although I-275 from the state line to KY 9 had been open since about 1980.
• I-275 from KY 9 to KY 16, including the Licking River bridge, opened around 1976. One rare bright spot of the area's freeways is that this bridge shaved 15 minutes off motorists' commute.
• Like most things, much of I-275 fell to ruin in the '90s. The highway department had some of our money to spend, so they claimed the pavement of the Kenton County portion hadn't been set properly when the road was first built, and they closed each side of the freeway for a year and routed traffic onto the other side for the unnecessary repaving. Accidents resulting from this project led to impassable traffic jams - which once forced us to drive on the closed side of the road and travel the wrong way on an exit ramp to KY 16 to avoid idling in stalled traffic for hours in hot weather.

471

Begin: I-275, .1 mi N of Highland Hts city line (bec KY 471)
End KY maint: OH state line (Ohio River), Newport

5.016 mi in KY, all Campbell

Cities: Wilder, Southgate, Ft Thomas, Woodlawn, Bellevue, Newport

Major bridges: Daniel Carter Beard Br (Ohio River, Newport)

Companion surface roads: US 27

A good example of what's wrong with America today.

Yes, I-471 officially begins at I-275. The continuation to US 27 in Highland Heights is legally KY 471 after being dropped from the Interstate system with no fanfare in 1990 - even though it's still called an Interstate on road signs and in common speech. I-471 was completed in the early '80s and seems almost synonymous with Campbell County itself. Sure, life was better before I-471 was built, but it's a little too late to do anything about it now. Notice how working-class neighborhoods were razed to build I-471 even though the road bulges to the west to avoid displacing any part of Highland Country Club.

A rare highlight of I-471 as it weaves and wafts in and out of several local cities is the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge - folks call it the Big Mac because of its yellow arches - to Cincinnati and its northern terminus at its parent I-71.

South of I-275, the freeway continues as "secret" KY 471 to its southern terminus at the perilous Malfunction Junction, an at-grade intersection with US 27 in Highland Heights that sports incredibly long traffic lights, poor design, and a reputation as the worst junction in Northern Kentucky.

Another unfortunate characteristic of I-471 is its near-destruction of tiny Woodlawn and of the east side of Newport.