The Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway is a state highway that stretches more than 75 miles, from the rolling fields of Central Kentucky into the mountainous Appalachian region of Eastern Kentucky. The two and four-lane roadway begins near Winchester and crosses through parts of Clark, Powell, Wolfe, Morgan and Magoffin counties before ending just west of Salyersville.
Constructing the Mountain Parkway was a significant milestone for Kentucky’s transportation system. It opened in 1963 as one of the state’s first toll roads, which created high-speed routes beyond the interstate highway system that was being expanded during that era. Drivers on Kentucky parkways paid tolls until bonds were paid off in the mid-1980s.
Ground was broken on Kentucky’s second toll road in Feb. 1960. Former Gov. Bert T. Combs (3rd from left), then Lt. Gov. Wilson Wyatt (2nd from left) and Highway Commissioner Henry Ward (right) turned the first shovels of dirt.
In late 2015, vehicles drove on the first new pavement of the Mountain Parkway Expansion, near Gifford Road in Magoffin County.
The Mountain Parkway provided a modern connection for commerce and travel between rural areas of Eastern Kentucky and more populous areas in Central Kentucky and beyond. The Parkway also helped connect visitors to Eastern Kentucky tourism destinations such as Natural Bridge State Resort Park and Jenny Wiley State Resort Park.
At the Parkway’s dedication in November 1963, Gov. Bert Combs – the leading advocate for its creation – called the Parkway “an age-old dream of Kentucky’s mountain people” and named it as his proudest accomplishment as governor.
The Parkway begins as a four-lane roadway that stretches for 45 miles, from Interstate 64 at Winchester to Campton. From that point on, the Parkway narrows to two or three lanes.
Originally, the Parkway was designed to extend past Salyersville to provide high-speed routes to Pikeville and Hazard. However, the extension was never built, and the two-lane KY 114 corridor has since provided the primary transportation link to Prestonsburg.
In January 2014, Gov. Steve Beshear and other leaders announced an aggressive plan to fulfill the original promise of creating a high-speed corridor connecting Eastern Kentucky with the rest of the state. Their updated plan called for widening the Parkway to four lanes from Campton to Salyersville, and extending the four-lane corridor to Prestonsburg.
