# Kentucky Route 79

Kentucky Route 79 (KY 79) is a 102-mile-long (164 km) north–south state highway that traverses five counties in west-central Kentucky. It can be seen as an extension of U.S. Route 79 (US 79), as they have the same number and once intersected; KY 79 begins in the same city that US 79 ends, and both travel on a northeast–southwest diagonal path.

## Route description
### Logan County

KY 79 starts at an intersection with KY 3519, an old alignment of US 431, Main Street in downtown Russellville, while US 79's end is currently at an intersection with US 68 and KY 80 on the eastern side of Russellville. KY 79 has an intersection with the four-lane divided US 68/KY 80 alignment. The two routes once met at the intersection of Main Street and Ninth Street, which carried the US 79 route to US 68 before the bypass.
KY 79 climbs the Dripping Springs Escarpment onto the Mammoth Cave Plateau a few miles northeast of Russellville and traverses northeastern Logan County, with intersections with KY 1038 and KY 2377.

### Butler County

After entering Butler County, KY 79 enters the Western Kentucky Coalfield and has intersections with KY 626 in Davis Crossroads and KY 1153. It then joins into a concurrency with US 231 just south of Morgantown; the two routes go into downtown Morgantown shortly after their interchange with I-165, the former William H. Natcher Parkway, and then meets KY 403 in downtown, and then KY 70 on the north side. KY 70 joins KY 79 and US 231 and all three routes are carried over the Green River from Morgantown to Aberdeen.
KY 79 departs at the Aberdeen Grocery, but KY 70 does not break up until reaching an intersection one mile north on US 231. After the split from US 231 and KY 70, KY 79 has an intersection with KY 1328 not more than 0.25 miles (0.40 km) from the split from US 231. Kentucky Route 79 crosses KY 70 for a final time, and becomes known as Caneyville Road.
KY 79 passes through Butler County's northern communities of Welcome and Welch's Creek where it meets KY 340.

### Grayson County

After KY 79 enters Grayson County and has access to the Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway on the south side of Caneyville and intersects KY 185 at that route's northern terminus, adopting its northerly direction, and immediately afterward crosses US 62 in downtown Caneyville.
KY 79 then goes north towards Pine Knob, leaving the coalfield, and passes through Short Creek, where it intersects KY 54 then goes through the developed portion of Falls of Rough, and Rough River Dam State Park.

### Breckenridge and Meade Counties

While traversing Rough River Dam, KY 79 crosses into Breckinridge County, where it intersects with KY 105, and then meets up with KY 259. KY 79 joins KY 259 from the lake area until they both reach the intersection with U.S. Highway 60 at Harned, southeast of Hardinsburg. While KY 259 makes a left turn to join US 60 westbound, KY 79 turns onto eastbound US 60, and stays with US 60 until reaching Irvington, where KY 79 enters Meade County, and heads for Brandenburg. On the southwest side of Brandenburg, KY 79 ends at an intersection with KY 313 and KY 448. The route once went to the nearby Ohio River bridge, but that was superseded with the completion of KY 313, the Joe Prather Highway, through Meade County.

## History

From 1929 until 1944, the number KY 79 was originally assigned to a rural highway in Simpson County. That route ran from the Tennessee state line, continuing south as Tennessee State Route 49, northeastward to Franklin; this route later became Kentucky Route 383.
From 1944 until 1958, the KY 79 designation only existed on its course from Irvington to Brandenburg; the current alignment of KY 79 from Russellville to Axtel was signed as KY 105. With the 1958 extension of U.S. Route 79 into Kentucky from Clarksville, Tennessee, KY 79 was extended to its length to serve as an unofficial extension of US 79 about eight years later.
In Meade County, KY 79 previously ran around the west side of Brandenburg to the Matthew E. Welsh Bridge across the Ohio River, where it terminated on the Indiana state line to become Indiana State Road 135. However, in 2018, the designation was replaced by KY 313, truncating KY 79 to its current terminus.

## Major intersections

| County | Location | mi | km | Destinations | Notes |
| Logan | Russellville | 0.000 | 0.000 | KY 3519 (Main Street) | Southern terminus; former US 431 |
| Logan | ​ | 1.768 | 2.845 | US 68 (Russellville Bypass) / KY 80 to US 431 | |
| Logan | ​ | 3.148 | 5.066 | KY 1588 east (Proctor Mill Road) | Western terminus of KY 1588 |
| Logan | ​ | 4.649 | 7.482 | KY 1038 east (Plainview Church Road) | Western terminus of KY 1038 |
| Logan | ​ | 9.075 | 14.605 | KY 103 south (Chandlers Road) | Northern terminus of KY 103 |
| Logan | ​ | 13.365 | 21.509 | KY 2377 west (Anderson Store Road) | Eastern terminus of KY 2377 |
| Butler | ​ | 17.039 | 27.422 | KY 626 | |
| Butler | ​ | 21.150 | 34.038 | KY 3182 east (Richland Church Road) | Western terminus of KY 3182 |
| Butler | ​ | 23.278 | 37.462 | KY 1153 south (Sandy Creek Road) | Northern terminus of KY 1153 |
| Butler | Morgantown | 27.558 | 44.350 | US 231 south (Bowling Green Road) | Southern end of US 231 concurrency |
| Butler | Morgantown | 27.998 | 45.058 | KY 1468 west (Gardners Lane Road) | Eastern terminus of KY 1468 |
| Butler | Morgantown | 28.893 | 46.499 | I-165 / US 231 Truck north / KY 79 Truck north – Bowling Green, Owensboro | Former William H. Natcher Parkway; truck route follows northbound I-165; I-165 exit 26 |
| Butler | Morgantown | 30.234 | 48.657 | KY 403 south (Porter Street) | Southern end of KY 403 overlap |
| Butler | Morgantown | 30.302 | 48.766 | KY 2161 north (Main Street) | Southern terminus of KY 2161 |
| Butler | Morgantown | 30.580 | 49.214 | KY 2162 | |
| Butler | Morgantown | 30.872 | 49.684 | KY 70 west / KY 403 north / US 231 Truck south / KY 79 Truck south (Veterans Way) to I-165 – Rochester, Logansport | North end of KY 403 overlap; south end of KY 70 overlap; truck route follows KY 70 west |
| Butler | Green River | 31.616– 31.896 | 50.881– 51.332 | Bridge | Bridge |
| Butler | Aberdeen | 32.685 | 52.601 | US 231 north / KY 70 east (Beaver Dam Road) to I-165 | Northern end of US 231 and KY 70 concurrency |
| Butler | ​ | 32.935 | 53.004 | KY 1328 (Leonard Oak Road) | |
| Butler | ​ | 33.554 | 54.000 | KY 70 (Brownsville Road) | |
| Butler | ​ | 36.298 | 58.416 | KY 2713 north (Dexterville-Banock Road) | Southern terminus of KY 2713 |
| Butler | ​ | 39.268 | 63.196 | KY 340 north (Oak Ridge Road) | Southern end of KY 340 overlap |
| Butler | ​ | 39.532 | 63.621 | KY 340 south (Brooklyn Road) | Northern end of KY 340 overlap |
| Grayson | ​ | 46.883 | 75.451 | KY 736 north (Windy Ridge Road) | Southern terminus of KY 736 |
| Grayson | ​ | 48.639– 48.835 | 78.277– 78.592 | Western Kentucky Parkway – Elizabethtown, Paducah | Interchange; Parkway exit 94 |
| Grayson | Caneyville | 49.819 | 80.176 | KY 185 south (Main Street) – Bowling Green, Roundhill | Northern terminus of KY 185; KY 79 turns left |
| Grayson | Caneyville | 49.854 | 80.232 | US 62 (Maple Street) – Beaver Dam, Leitchfield | |
| Grayson | Post | 53.490 | 86.084 | KY 2804 east (Hopewell Road) | Western terminus of KY 2804 |
| Grayson | Short Creek | 57.392 | 92.363 | KY 54 (Owensboro Road) | |
| Grayson | ​ | 61.938 | 99.680 | KY 736 – Cave Creek Recreation Area | |
| Grayson | ​ | 63.128 | 101.595 | KY 110 – Falls of Rough | |
| Breckinridge | ​ | 66.840 | 107.569 | KY 105 north (McQuady-Axtel Road) / KY 2201 south (Old KY 105) – Cloverport | Southern terminus of KY 105; northern terminus of KY 2201 |
| Breckinridge | Axtel | 68.386 | 110.057 | KY 1740 east (Kingswood-Mattingly School Road) | Western terminus of KY 1740 |
| Breckinridge | ​ | 70.246 | 113.050 | KY 259 south – Leitchfield | Southern end of KY 259 overlap |
| Breckinridge | Westview | 75.868 | 122.098 | KY 690 east | Western terminus of KY 690 |
| Breckinridge | Kingswood | 77.580 | 124.853 | KY 1740 west (Kingswood-Mattingly School Road) | Eastern terminus of KY 1740 |
| Breckinridge | Kingswood | 77.814 | 125.229 | KY 232 east | Western terminus of KY 232 |
| Breckinridge | Harned | 79.942 | 128.654 | US 60 west / KY 259 north – Hardinsburg, Owensboro | Northern end of KY 259 overlap; southern end of US 60 overlap |
| Breckinridge | Harned | 80.412 | 129.411 | KY 1401 east | Western terminus of KY 1401 |
| Breckinridge | Garfield | 83.832 | 134.915 | KY 86 west (Garfield-Lodiburg Road) | Southern end of KY 86 overlap |
| Breckinridge | Hensley | 85.233 | 137.169 | KY 86 east | Northern end of KY 86 overlap |
| Breckinridge | ​ | 89.373 | 143.832 | KY 333 east | Southern end of KY 333 overlap |
| Breckinridge | ​ | 89.726 | 144.400 | KY 333 west (Webster-Basin Springs Road) | Northern end of KY 333 overlap |
| Breckinridge | Irvington | 91.920 | 147.931 | US 60 east – Louisville | Northern end of US 60 overlap |
| Breckinridge | Irvington | 92.163 | 148.322 | KY 2202 south (Woodlawn Street) | Northern terminus of KY 2202 |
| Breckinridge | ​ | 92.887 | 149.487 | KY 477 north | Southern terminus of KY 477 |
| Meade | ​ | 95.030 | 152.936 | KY 428 (Guston Road) | |
| Meade | ​ | 96.839 | 155.847 | KY 1726 south (Dooley Road) | Northern terminus of KY 1726 |
| Meade | ​ | 97.627 | 157.115 | KY 261 south (Sandy Hill Road) | Northern terminus of KY 261 |
| Meade | Midway | 98.178 | 158.002 | KY 144 east / KY 1239 west (Midway Road) | Eastern terminus of KY 1239; southern end of KY 144 overlap |
| Meade | ​ | 99.601 | 160.292 | KY 144 west (Payneville Road) | Northern end of KY 144 overlap |
| Meade | Brandenburg | 102.004 | 164.160 | KY 313 (By Pass Road) / KY 448 north (High Street) | Northern terminus; southern terminus of KY 448; continues as KY 448 beyond KY 313 |
| 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi Concurrency terminus ||||||

## Special routes
### Kentucky Route 79 Truck

Kentucky Route 79 Truck (KY 79 Truck) is a truck route in Morgantown, Kentucky. It runs concurrently with the entire route of US 231 Truck as the main KY 79 alignment runs concurrently with US 231's main alignment throughout the city. It serves as a by-pass route around Morgantown. Its component routes include I-165 from the Main Street interchange to the KY 70 interchange, and KY 70 (Veterans Way) from the I-165 junction to the US 231/KY 79/KY 403 junction on the north side of town.