Kentucky Route 259

Warren/Edmonson County area

KY 259's southern terminus is at the intersection with the concurrently running U.S. Route 68 (US 68) and KY 80 in Hays, in far eastern Warren County. It crosses Interstate 65 (I-65) via an overpass shortly before crossing into Edmonson County and reaches the community of Rocky Hill, where it intersects KY 1339 (Apple Grove Road). It then crosses US 31W just north of Rocky Hill, and then turns northwest to intersect KY 422 and 2325 in the Pig community. When it meets KY 101 in Rhoda, KY 259 turns right and continues on to the Edmonson County seat of Brownsville, where it runs concurrently with Kentucky Route 70 throughout its course through that city, over the Green River to a point near the Riverhill Shopping Center.

After leaving Brownsville, KY 259 then traverses the communities of Lindseyville, Sweeden (where it intersects KY 728), and Bee Spring (where it intersects KY 238). KY 259 skirts the Nolin Lake area after passing through the community of Broadway.

Three different sections of KY 259 in Edmonson and Warren counties are marked as a Kentucky Scenic Byway.

Grayson County

KY 259 enters Grayson County and continues on through Anneta and Meredith. It intersects a very short KY 226, and then enters Leitchfield. It intersects the Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway at its exit 107 interchange and meets US 62 in downtown Leitchfield. It also meets the eastern terminus of KY 54 (Owensboro Road) at the public square. After the second intersection of the Leitchfield By-Pass (the first one was after the WK Parkway interchange), KY 259 continues northward.

Breckinridge and Meade Counties

After reaching Breckinridge County, and the first junction with Kentucky Route 79, KY 259 and KY 79 run concurrently while bridging parts of the Rough River Lake. They reach the US 60 junction at Harned. KY 259 turns left to run concurrently with US 60 westbound, while KY 79 makes a right turn to join US 60 eastbound. KY 259 enters the city of Hardinsburg and then continues north to reach its northern terminus at KY 144 at Rhodelia, in western Meade County. Three different sections of KY 259 in Edmonson and Warren counties are marked as a Kentucky Scenic Byway.

History

In the beginning, KY 259 only ran from Hardinsburg to Rhodelia. The highway from Hays to Harned began its history as Kentucky Route 65 at the time of its inception. KY 65 originally had a total length of an estimated 65.1 miles (104.8 km).

The then-KY 65 (during its concurrency with KY 70) in Edmonson County crossed the Green River by ferry until it was re-routed onto a bridge in the 1950s.

At one point between 1959 and 1963, KY 65 was redesignated as the current KY 259, extending that route to its current longevity. This was done in order to avoid confusion between it and the then-planned-and-under-construction Interstate 65 in the Edmonson/Warren/Barren County area, and its entire course through west-central Kentucky, which was completed in 1967. To date, there was never another KY 65 designation ever since. The re-numbering to the current KY 259 also complied with the state's policy that no duplication of highway numbers were allowed in the state except for US 79 and KY 79 in west-central Kentucky. That policy was also compliant of the former KY 64 in this region of the state after Interstate 64 was under construction in north-central and northeast Kentucky.

In early 2001, construction began to create a straight by-pass two-lane corridor from Brownsville to Chalybeate, including the rerouting of KY 259 from Rhoda to Brownsville, along with the final stretch of KY 101 in the Rhoda area. Once it was completed in November 2001, the old alignments the two routes were reconstructed to include intersections with the new alignment. Once those were done in 2002, the KYTC assigned the old alignment then-new state route designations of KY 3019 and KY 3021.

Points of interest along the route

Related routes