Hal Rogers Parkway

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.

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.

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.