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 (114.479 km). It intersects with Interstate 65 at its western terminus, and 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 (BG 9002). It is constructed similar to the Interstate Highway system, though sections do not measure up to current Interstate standards.
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.[2] The parkway was opened in November 1965 as the Kentucky Bluegrass Parkway (the "Kentucky" was dropped a few years later) 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.[citation needed]
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.
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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 (and signed as "KB Parkway"), then later renamed the "Blue Grass Parkway" (sometimes with "Bluegrass" as one word, though in the highway's name, it was officially two words), 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.[4]
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.[5]
The toll plazas, which were removed in 1991, were located at the following locations:
No connection to I-64 was planned as it had not been constructed and would not open until the late 1970s. There have been talks for a direct connection from the eastern terminus of the parkway at US 60 to I-64, but nothing has been finalized. Such a connection would likely face opposition in the Lexington area due to the many horse farms that would be adversely affected as the thoroughbred breeding industry is an important direct employer and a major tourist draw in the region.[7]