Purchase Parkway

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Julian M. Carroll Purchase Parkway shield.

The Julian M. Carroll Purchase Parkway is a controlled-access highway running from Fulton, Kentucky to Calvert City, Kentucky, near Kentucky Dam, for a length of 52 miles (84 kilometres). It begins at the Tennessee State Line concurrent with US 51 only a few yards (metres) from an intersection with US 45W, US 45E, and US 45 at its western terminus, and US 62 just north of Interstate 24 at its eastern terminus. It is one of nine highways that are part of the Kentucky parkway system.

Originally named Purchase Parkway, for the Jackson Purchase area it diagonally traverses, the road was renamed for Julian M. Carroll, a former Kentucky governor from McCracken County, in 2001.

Completed in 1966, the parkway incorporates a pre-existing four-lane divided bypass around Mayfield. This section of the parkway is also designated as US 45 Bypass.

Except for the Mayfield bypass which remained free, the parkway was originally a toll road, as were all Kentucky parkways. State law requires that toll collection ceases when enough tolls are collected to pay off the parkway's construction bonds; that occurred in 1992. It is constructed similar to the Interstate Highway system.

The parkway passes the cities of Mayfield and Benton, Kentucky.

[edit] Interstate 69 alignment

The Julian M. Carroll Purchase Parkway from the junction with Interstate 24 west has been legally designated to become part of Interstate 69. On May 15, 2006, Governor Ernie Fletcher announced that the Purchase Parkway would become part of the alignment of Interstate 69 in Kentucky, along with parts of Interstate 24, the Edward T. Breathitt Parkway, and the Western Kentucky Parkway ^{[citation needed]}. To reflect this, Future Interstate 69 shields were erected along the parkway in the summer of 2006.

The Parkways, however, do not meet current interstate highway standards and will need upgrading before any interstate shield can be installed. A larger 36' median, increased bridge heights to 16', shoulder improvements, and interchange reconstructions will all need to take place to bring the alignment into federal compliance. No official funding has been set in the six-year plan stipulating modernization of the parkways that will be affected by Interstate 69's routing, nor has any official study been completed ^[1].