William H. Natcher Parkway

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William H. Natcher Parkway

Length:

70.184 mi^[1] (112.950 km)

South end:

I-65 in Bowling Green

Major
junctions:

US 31W in Bowling Green

US 68/KY 80 in Bowling Green

US 231 near Bowling Green

US 231/KY 79 near Morgantown

US 231 near Morgantown

Western KY Pkwy near Beaver Dam

North end:

US 60 BYP/US 231 in Owensboro

Counties:

Warren, Butler, Ohio, Daviess

Major cities:

Bowling Green, Owensboro

Numbered highways in Kentucky
Interstates - U.S. Highways - State Highways

Interstate 65 at the William H. Natcher Parkway south of Bowling Green.

The Wiliam H. Natcher Green River Parkway is a limited-access freeway from Bowling Green, Kentucky to Owensboro, Kentucky. The Natcher is one of nine highways that are part of Kentucky's parkway system. Conceived as the "Owensboro-Bowling Green Parkway," it was instead named the Green River Parkway when it opened on December 15, 1972. It received its current name in 1994 following the death of the late William H. Natcher, a United States Congressman who represened the Second District of Kentucky for three decades. Natcher is best known for his record-setting string of 18,401 roll call votes, even being wheeled in on a hospital gurney to vote shortly before his death.

The Natcher Parkway was a toll road from its opening until November 21, 2006.

In 2006, the old and new names were combined into the current name, in order to be consistent with most of the Commonwealth's other parkways, all of which had their original names changed in the same manner to honor various Kentucky politicians. However, the newly-designed marker signs that were installed on the Natcher Parkway in the summer of 2006 do not bear the words "Green River."

The parkway begins at an interchange with Interstate 65 (exit 20) just south of Bowling Green. It travels along the west side of the city in a northwesterly direction, through rolling farmlands and near coal mines, for 70.24 miles before meeting its northern terminus at an interchange with the U.S. 60 Bypass at Owensboro. At Exit 41, the parkway intersects with the Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway, the longest and oldest road in the state's parkway system. The Natcher Parkway bypasses the cities of Morgantown, Beaver Dam and Hartford. The parkway carries the unsigned designation of Kentucky Route 9007 (WN 9007).

1 History
- 1.1 Toll removal
2 Future
- 2.1 Interstate 66
3 Exit list
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Toll removal

On November 21, 2006, toll plazas on the Natcher were removed. Prior to their removal, toll plazas were located at Exit 7/Bowling Green (through cars 50 cents), Exit 34/Morgantown (40 cents), and Exit 48/Hartford (60 cents). Motorists travelling between the I-65 exit and Exit 7 in the Bowling Green area were not charged toll.

The Natcher and the nearby Audubon Parkway, were the last two roads in the Kentucky parkway system to have their tolls removed. Under Kentucky law, toll roads cease toll collection once their construction bonds are paid, either by collected tolls or other sources.

[edit] Future

[edit] Interstate 66

The parkway was designated a part of the "Future Interstate 66 Corridor," a proposed four-lane Interstate utilizing the existing Cumberland and Hal Rogers Parkway, among other routes, across the southern tier of Kentucky. It cannot be signed as an Interstate until it has permanent connections to the east and west, both of which have not been determined due to the King Coal Highway in West Virginia being demoted to a corridor-standard roadway for US 52.

All or part of the Natcher from the Western Kentucky Parkway interchange southward has been proposed to become part of the controversial proposed extension of Interstate 66 through Kentucky. Exactly how much of the southernmost 41 miles of the highway will be used has not yet been decided — various plans call for the route to diverge from the Natcher somewhere north of Bowling Green and head east toward I-65, forming a northern beltine around the city; another plan would have I-66 follow the Natcher route all the way to the current I-65 interchange, then turn north and overlap I-65 to its junction with the Louie B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway.

[edit] Exit list

County	Location	Mile^[1]	#	Destinations	Notes
Warren	Bowling Green	0.000	1A-B	I-65 - Louisville, Nashville (TN)	Southbound only.
		3.572	4	US 31W - Bowling Green	To Western Kentucky University.
		4.969	5	US 68/KY 80 - Bowling Green, Russellville
		7.422	7	US 231 - Bowling Green
Butler	Morgantown	26.147	26	US 231/KY 79 - Morgantown
	Morgantown	27.428	27	KY 70 - Morgantown, Rochester
		33.845	34	US 231 - Cromwell, Morgantown
Ohio		41.270	41A-B	Western Kentucky Parkway - Elizabethtown, Paducah
Ohio	Hartford	47.796	48	KY 69 - Beaver Dam, Hartford
Daviess	Owensboro	70.184	70A-B	US 60 BYP/US 231 - Hawesville, Henderson, Owensboro	Northbound only. To Ben Hawes State Park.