Bluegrass Parkway
The Martha Layne Collins Blue Grass Parkway is a controlled-access highway running from Elizabethtown, Kentucky to Woodford County, Kentucky, for a length of 71.134 miles (114.479 km). It intersects with Interstate 65 at its western terminus, and U.S. Route 60 at its eastern terminus. It is one of seven highways that are part of the Kentucky parkway system. The road is designated unsigned Kentucky Route 9002 (BG 9002). It is constructed similar to the Interstate Highway system, though sections do not measure up to current Interstate standards. History. As a toll road. The parkway was opened in  November 1965 as the Kentucky Bluegrass parkway (the "Kentucky" was dropped a few years later) and was originally a toll road, as were all Kentucky parkways. The parkway route largely parallels that of U.S. Route 62. State law requires that toll collection ceases when enough tolls are collected to pay off the parkway's construction bonds; that occurred in 1991. Toll plazas and charges. The table below shows the locations of the former toll plazas, and toll charges that were previously charged for consumer-sized, or class 1 vehicles. Name changes. In 2003, the road was renamed in honor of  Martha Layne Collins, the first female governor of Kentucky. Previously, it was simply the Blue Grass Parkway (sometimes with "Bluegrass" as one word, though in the highway's name, it was officially two words), and often called the "BG Parkway" because of the abbreviation once used on its original signs from 1965 until they were replaced by a shield with the Collins name in 2003. Route description. The parkway begins in Hardin County, at its I-65 junction near Elizabethtown. The parkway traverses Nelson, northern Washington, northern Mercer, southern Anderson, and Woodford counties, passing Bardstown, Lawrenceburg, and ending just east of  Versailles. The toll plazas, which were removed in 1991, were located at the following locations: Future. Interstate 64. No connection to Interstate 64 was planned as it had not been constructed and would not open until the late 1970s. By the time the road opened, however, it was renamed the Bluegrass Parkway. There have been talks for a direct connection from the eastern terminus of the parkway at US 60 to Interstate 64, but all have failed. Such a connection would almost certainly draw enormous opposition in the Lexington area due to the many horse farms that would be adversely  affected; the thoroughbred breeding industry is an important direct employer and a major tourist draw in the region.