Kentucky Roads - US 23/US 60/US 119
, US 23/60
US 23/119 NB.
US 23/119 SB from US 460/KY 80 to the future Corridor Q. Someday, this will be US 460, but until it's completed into Virginia, it bears the number KY 3174 since opening in December 2014. The last 2 photos look east at the US 119/23 NB-Corridor Q EB ramp and the corridor's rock cut from there. Always rock cuts for new highways in Appalachia.
NB at the new ramp to KY 3174 EB.
KY 2167 is shorter than the time it takes you to read this sentence. It's less significant than the one typo I probably made on this page. The entire length of the route is an interchange ramp connecting US 119/23 to KY 122. Why isn't 122 signed here? Why is KY 2167 signed at all? Who's looking for this route? But with Series A font, please don't get rid of the signs.
These photos are NB in Catlettsburg, ending with the shield atop the page. All of these are shared with US 60 WB and long have been. All of these should therefore have US 60 shields. I can see one facing KY 168! Also, all of them should be designed properly, with plumper apple bottoms.
Buckle up, I'm leaving Catlettsburg and heading into Ashland. Oh, look, they've still forgotten the US 60 shield. And... what is this US US 23, Ashland?
US 23 bears onto Greenup Ave. to skip downtown, while Business US 23 follows the old route through.
US 60 turns left on 10th St. to leave US 23, which I find counterintuitive because it has to backtrack east to get onto 12th St. west. It should really turn left on 14th St. Anyway, Ashland doesn't want trucks downtown, so it has a truck route that circles around the perimeter. I'm a bit hazy on where it leads, because I only found a couple of sporadic references.
Business US 23 has a lot of small overhead signs. Ashland has a lot of small overhead signs, but these two happen to be on Business US 23 NB and SB at US 60. They need to work on what "TO" means, since the first sign is at actual 60.
Business US 23 also gets you grade level with the vivaciously painted Ben Williamson (green) and Simeon Willis (blue) Bridges, a one-way pair heading straight from the west leg of US 60 across the Ohio River to US 52. Technically, these are Spur US 23, unusual in a state that will assign a state highway number to pretty much any through road.
Take regular US 23/60 and you'll cross under those two bridges instead. Apparently they're not vertically fixed.
SB in the same spot, with more pointy shields and more tiny-text clearance. US 60 WB heads up 10th St. but US 60 EB doesn't come on board until 11th St.
SB at Greenup Ave. in Ashland, which only goes a block to the left but, in doing so, avoids busy intersections with the Ohio River bridges and US 60. Courtesy Lou Corsaro, this is not "TO" US 23 because he is already on it. Richard Brown informs me that Greenup Ave. started as Truck US 23 in the 1950s to bypass the busy road through downtown, then took the mainline off of Winchester Ave. (the road continuing straight) in the 1970s once it had been upgraded. Winchester is now the Business route, though unsigned on these overheads. As you see, depending on which direction of I-64 you seek, you may want to be below the "To 23" sign instead of the "To 64" sign in advance. Also, only the EB US 60 shield is anything close to proper in the second assembly.
SB past Russell, an old railroad overpass materializes to my left and comes in at an angle. This is clearly old US 23, and its current number is KY 244. Looking back north across KY 244, the old Ironton-Russell Bridge (since dismantled) is visible.
Three different military branches are represented along US 23 SB just north of KY 67.
Ugly shields abound heading north from there past the Greenup Locks and Dam. There's a suspension pipeline bridge behind the nondescript KY 10 dam crossing.
An old SB shield with the Series A font, courtesy Lou Corsaro. The narrowest now allowed is Series B, which you see on the US 23 shield. The A font was necessary to cram four digits into a circle, but now Kentucky uses an oval that can fit Series B or even C.
US 23 SB crosses the 2006 U.S. Grant Bridge from Ohio. The Carl D. Perkins Bridge is just west, a modern truss bridge built specifically to allow replacement of the old U.S. Grant suspension bridge. What a terrible idea.
US 460 and US 23/119/460
Onto US 119 alone
Onto US 60 alone
Onto the Ashland Ohio River bridges, Spur US 23
Into Virginia on US 23
Into Ohio on US 23
Onto future US 460/Corridor Q, KY 3174
Onto KY 2167
To I-64
To US 52 (in Ohio)
Onto KY 244, old US 23
Over to the Ironton-Russell Bridge
Onto KY 10
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