Length 184.6 km | ||
South end: US 231 / US 31E at the Tennessee state line North end: US 231 at the Indiana state line near Rockport Counties Allen County, Kentucky, Warren County, Kentucky | ||
U.S. Route 231 (US 231) in Kentucky runs 86.465 miles (139.152 km) from the Tennessee state line near Adolphus to the William H. Natcher Bridge on the Ohio River (Indiana state line) near Rockport, Indiana. It crosses the state mainly in the west-central region, traversing Allen, Warren, Butler, Ohio, and Daviess Counties.
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Route description
Running concurrently with U.S. Route 31E for its first 8.607 miles (13.852 km) in Kentucky, US 231/31E enters the state from Sumner County, Tennessee, and into Allen County. The two routes separate on the west side of Scottsville after the KY 100 junction. US 231 turns northwestward into a four-lane highway on its way into Warren County, and into Bowling Green. Just before leaving the city, US 231 crosses the William H. Natcher Parkway for a second time (the first was at the parkway's southern terminus).
US 231 reaches Butler County to cross the Natcher Parkway for a third time, and running concurrently with KY 79 into Morgantown. KY 70 joins in on the concurrency as US 231, KY 79, and KY 70 cross the Green River. Both state routes separate in the Aberdeen area before crossing the Natcher Parkway for a fourth and final time before entering Ohio County. It meets U.S. Route 62 in the Beaver Dam/Hartford area after crossing the Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway on the south side of Beaver Dam.
US 231 goes further north into Daviess County to join up with US 60 (Wendell H. Ford Expressway) to bypass Owensboro. US 60 splits from US 231 before leaving the state via the William H. Natcher Bridge going into Spencer County, Indiana.
Alternate names
U.S. 231 has several alternate names throughout its course in Kentucky. They include:
History
In Kentucky, US 231 was originally signed as Kentucky Route 71, one of many charter routes of Kentucky's statewide system of highways when it was established in 1929. KY 71 originally ran from downtown Scottsville to downtown Owensboro. Portions of the original KY 71 in Butler County was rerouted to a bridge over the Green River in the early 1950s, replacing the Morgantown Ferry. In 1952, US 231 replaced the alignment of KY 71 in its entirety as that allication was extended to include several routes into Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana from Montgomery, Alabama.
In August 1999, US 231 in Bowling Green was rerouted onto KY 880 (Campbell Lane) from the Scottsville Road intersection to the Morgantown Road intersection on the northwest side of town. The former alignment of US 231 into downtown Bowling Green was redesignated as US 231 Business.
In the 2002-03 fiscal year, US 231 in Daviess County was rerouted onto the then-new William H. Natcher Bridge northeast of Owensboro. It previously followed the current KY 2155 and KY 2262 onto the Owensboro Bridge in downtown Owensboro into Spencer County until the opening of the Natcher Bridge.