US Route 68

U.S. Route 68 (US 68) is a United States highway that runs for from northwest Ohio to Western Kentucky. The highway's western terminus is at US 62 in Reidland, Kentucky. Its present eastern terminus is at Interstate 75 in Findlay, Ohio, though the route once extended as far north as Toledo. US 68 intersects with US 62 three times during its route.

Route description

US 68 is signed east–west in Kentucky, while in Ohio it is signed north–south.

Kentucky

U.S. Route 68 is designated as a "Scenic Highway" throughout Kentucky. US 68 passes near or through Reidland, Aurora, Cadiz, Hopkinsville, Elkton, Russellville, Auburn, Bowling Green, Glasgow, Edmonton, Greensburg, Campbellsville, Lebanon, Perryville, Harrodsburg, Lexington, Paris, and Maysville.

The majority of the route winds through forested, hilly terrain. US 68 is Broadway through downtown Lexington, and it is Harrodsburg Road before it leaves Lexington.

The route passes several Civil War battle sites. The Jefferson Davis State Historic Site is located along the highway, approximately east of Hopkinsville at the small town of Fairview. The Battle of Tebbs Bend Historic Civil War Site is located near Campbellsville and the Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site is outside Perryville.

There is an annual yard sale, held along the highway for four days in early summer.

The sections of the highway through Campbellsville and Lebanon are slated for expansion to begin in 2008. The long-term goal is to widen and make safer the entire US 68 corridor through Kentucky as part of the Heartland Parkway project.

Sections in Kentucky have been improved in recent years. The Paris Pike was completed in 2003. Work is currently in progress to make US 68 four lanes through Land Between the Lakes. This was accelerated, following a devastating collision of the cargo vessel MV ''Delta Mariner'' with Eggner Ferry Bridge in January 2012.

Ohio

US 68 takes a south–north route throughout Ohio, roughly paralleling Interstate 75 but covering counties one tier to the east of those counties covered by I-75. US 68 begins at the William H. Harsha Bridge over the Ohio River and is immediately concurrent with US 52 and US 62 for while traveling on the north bank of the river. US 52 leaves the concurrency at Ripley, at which point US 68 and US 62 head north for as a generally rural two-lane highway. In Brown County's Jefferson Township, near Redoak, US 62 leaves the concurrency. Afterward, US 68 passes through or bypasses communities such as Georgetown, Mount Orab, Fayetteville, Wilmington, Xenia, and Yellow Springs. Shortly before reaching Interstate 70, it becomes a four-lane expressway, bypassing Springfield before transitioning back to a rural two-lane road as it approaches Urbana. As it continues north, US 68 passes through West Liberty, Bellefontaine, Kenton, Dunkirk, and Arlington on its way north to its terminus at an interchange with Interstate 75 outside Findlay.

Near Redoak in Brown County, the designation "Brigadier General Charles Young Memorial Historical Corridor" leaves the US 62/US 68 concurrency and joins US 68 solely at the routes' junction. The designation is in honor of Young, a pioneering figure in US history, and at his death, the highest-ranking Black officer in the Regular Army. The memorial historical corridor stretches northward to Xenia, where it leaves US 68 and joins US 42 at the junction of those routes.

In total, US 68 traverses 179.1 miles within Ohio.

History

Original route in central Kentucky

From 1926 until the late 1940s, in terms of the routing between Bowling Green and Perryville, US 68's concurrency with US 31W went further northeast through southeastern Edmonson and northwestern Barren counties to Horse Cave, in Hart County. US 68 then followed the present-day Kentucky Route 218 (Charlie Moran Highway) to the US 31E junction at Wigwam, and then joined US 31E northward through LaRue and Nelson counties to Bardstown, where it joined US 150 for a concurrency that lasted through Washington County until it went solo in Perryville.Rand McNally Junior Auto Road Map of Kentucky and Tennessee, 1934. US 68 moved to its current routing between Bowling Green and Perryville (except for the later rerouting onto Glasgow's Veterans Outer Loop) around 1948–49.

Original alignment in northwestern Ohio

US 68 previously ran to Toledo, Ohio, terminating at the west approach to the Anthony Wayne Bridge south of downtown, but the Toledo-Findlay segment was decommissioned in the 1950s. It also passed through Springfield, Ohio prior to its realignment onto a four-lane bypass of that city.

Widening project in western Kentucky (1990s)

For much of the 1990s, much of the US 68/KY 80 corridor from the I-24 junction near Cadiz to the Natcher Parkway (now I-165) junction in Bowling Green was under construction for a regional construction project to widen the corridor to four lanes, with several alignments remaining intact, especially around small towns such as Fairview and Auburn. The project included bypass routes in Hopkinsville and Russellville.

Eggner Ferry Bridge incident (2012)

Two spans of the US 68/KY 80 Eggner Ferry Bridge over Kentucky Lake collapsed after being struck by a cargo ship on January 26, 2012. The bridge reopened to traffic on May 25, 2012. That bridge was replaced by a new four-lane bridge a few years afterwards.

Ohio roundabout

In summer 2020, ODOT made plans to convert the intersection with SR 235, the state route's southern terminus, to a roundabout, near Oldtown in Xenia Township, Greene County, Ohio, almost north of downtown Xenia. Construction was expected to begin in spring 2023 and to be completed that fall, with an estimated cost of $2 million. However, site preparations did not begin until early June 2024, and it was announced that construction would begin on July 16, at a cost of $2.29 million, to be completed by the fall. On December 3, 2024, the roundabout was substantially completed except for minor finish work such as landscaping, which is scheduled to be done in spring 2025.

Future

In Springfield Township, Clark County, Ohio, there is an almost full-access interchange between controlled-access US 68 and US 40/ SR 4, which is itself a controlled-access highway until approximately 0.3-mile west of the US 68 interchange. One exit ramp from US 68 ends on Upper Valley Pike, rather than on US 40/SR 4; another entrance ramp includes two-way traffic and an at-grade entrance to a retirement community. On US 40/SR 4 between the controlled-access portion and US 68, there are an at-grade intersection at Upper Valley Pike, other street and driveway breaks in access control and a steep grade on the eastbound approach toward Upper Valley Pike. In September 2013, the Clark County-Springfield Transportation Coordinating Committee (TCC) ranked the US 40/SR 4/Upper Valley Pike intersection as the most hazardous in the county, based on 2010-2012 crash data. Because the road design over the years had played a significant factor in the high number of crashes in the area, the TCC conducted a study; in February 2006 it recommended reconfiguring the US 68 interchange and altering nearby traffic patterns. The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) the same year approved $5 million to fund the project. However, the TCC soon rejected ODOT's money, concluding that even its recommended fix would not be enough to solve the area road network's underlying problems. Instead, the TCC is making small changes, such as improving traffic signal timing and adding signs. ODOT, for its part, is working on reducing the number of driveways near the US 40/SR 4/Upper Valley Pike intersection and on upgrading traffic signals.

On December 7, 2023, ODOT announced that it would provide a $2.6 million grant to construct a single-lane roundabout at Fairfield Pike in Springfield Township, Clark County, Ohio, on the border with Springfield, in 2028.

Major intersections

Related routes

* U.S. Route 168
* Special routes of U.S. Route 68

References

External links

Endpoints of U.S. Highway 68

{{US Highways

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Transportation in Brown County, Ohio
Transportation in Clinton County, Ohio
Transportation in Greene County, Ohio
Transportation in Clark County, Ohio
Transportation in Champaign County, Ohio
Transportation in Logan County, Ohio
Transportation in Hardin County, Ohio
Transportation in Hancock County, Ohio
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