Kentucky Highways Some History and Prospects for Planning by Timothy Collins Sarah Dewees Ronald D Eller prepared by the UK Appalachian Center Kentucky Highways: Some History and Prospects for Planning PART I Kentucky Highways and History: Golden Triangle and Problem Crescent By Timothy Collins Page 1 PART II Interstate 66: The Need for Integrated Planning of a New Corridor in Appalachian Kentucky By Sarah Dewees, Timothy Collins, and Ronald D Eller Page 26 The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center 110 Maxwelton Court Lexington, KY 40508-0347 606-257-4852 December, 1996 Photograph Captions and Credits: COVER: Cartwright-Cumberland City Road, Clinton County, late 1930s source: University of Kentucky Archives FACING: Scene in Eastern Kentucky, late 1930s source: National Archives, Washington D. C. PAGE 9: Road Construction, Lawrence County, late 1930s source: University of Kentucky Archives PAGE 11: Sand Gap-Kirby Knob Road, Jackson County, late 1930s source: University of Kentucky Archives PAGE 17: Packhorse Librarians, Greasy Creek, late 1930s source: University of Kentucky Archives This publication was funded in part by a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission. PART I Kentucky Highways and History: Golden Triangle and Problem Crescent by Timothy Collins Introduction1 companies were reluctant to invest their Kentucky is a state with rich and poor own revenues or support taxation for areas. Some areas are vital links in the state, highways, so there was limited enthusiasm regional, national, and international economy, for road construction in many counties. while other parts barely get by because they are considered to be economic backwaters. Golden Triangle Some areas have plenty of jobs. Others do not. and Problem Crescent Some areas have access to good roads. Others During and after the 1820s, a network of do not. Those areas without access to good privately owned turnpikes under state charter roads are relatively isolated, especially in was built across Central Kentucky, with Appalachia. They tend to be out of the eco- Lexington, then an emerging manufacturing nomic mainstream. city, at its center. Road building was limited in Kentucky has many symptoms of uneven other sections (Clark, 1977; Caudill, 1963; economic development, and they are nothing Bowman and Haynes, 1963). The Golden new. The economic, political, and social Triangle of Louisville, Lexington, and problems of some areas which have af- Northern Kentucky was taking shape, linked fected the whole state date to the by a highway network that became the basis Commonwealths very beginnings. Lack of for much of the modern road system. Because good roads appears to be one major reason for of sectionalism, pressure for public funding of uneven development. Besides topography, roads had much to do with the growing there are least three historic factors that are economic intersts of Louisville, and to some crucial to understanding Kentuckys problem extent, Lexington. of uneven development and highways: The Problem Crescent (Bowman and Haynes, 1963), a loosely defined area which 1) Until shortly after the turn of the century, extends from the Appalachian counties of the road building, with few exceptions, was east, across the southern counties, and turns considered mostly a local matter in Ken- north just east of the western coalfields (Map tucky. In fact, there was considerable 1), also took shape as commercial develop- resistance to any efforts to develop a state- ment burgeoned elsewhere. While the state funded road system with any regional was first in the country to establish a highway cohesiveness. Road planning really did not department in 1835 (Kentucky Encyclopedia, emerge until well after World War II, when 1992), the department was abolished in the the federal government became far more 1850s. Private road operators wanted to keep active in road financing. the state out of their lucrative business funded by state underwriting and tolls. 2) Even before the exploitation of Appalachia As market horizons expanded from local for coal, there apparently were limited areas to become regional, national, and even resources for road construction in Eastern international, farmers and manufacturers Kentucky, compared with other parts of the demanded better transportation. Gradually, state, especially in the central Bluegrass highways became a budget priority in Frank- area. fort. But the 1891 Constitution actually for- bade state involvement in highway develop- 3) Coal development which occurred ment until voters amended it in 1909 to let the mainly through the auspices of large-scale state set up highway funds (Kentucky Encyclo- firms located outside the region relied pedia, 1992). As late as 1912, road construction heavily on railroads until about the end of was chiefly a local affair financed by subscrip- World War II. Interests from outside the tion, privately built toll roads granted under state, as well as from Louisville, were state charter, and county-built highways active in railroad building. Because of the (Kentucky Bureau of Agriculture, Labor and heavy capital investments in railroads, coal Statistics, c.1929). Roads as Commonwealth 1 This is a revised and expanded essay excerpted largely In 1912, the Legislature established an from the unpublished dissertation of Timothy Collins, Tapestry Of Conflicts: A Political Economy Of Education And advisory Department of Public Roads. By Economic Development In Kentucky, 1995, the University of 1914, the State Highway Department was Kentucky. allowed to set standards for construction and 1 maintenance. There was a Road Fund based help plan and fund highway construction. The on a 5-cent gasoline tax and an auto license Legislature then passed a law allowing the tax. There was also a tax of 5 cents per $100 of state to provide $3 for every $1 counties raised property. Revenue from these taxes was to through bond issues. Almost every county allow state funds to build roads to connect took on highway debt in the 1920s (Kentucky county seats. By this time, there was an Bureau of Agriculture, Labor, and Statistics, increasing federal presence in road building c.1929). During the 1920s, road construction through the Office of Public Roads. In 1916, boomed, and county leaders painted the Congress passed the Federal Road Aid Act, possibilities in romantic terms. Between 1921 which became the basis of the federal-state and 1923, the state spent $6.7 million to gravel partnership in road construction. The act and grade 513 miles of road. In 1923, the mandated states to set up Highway Depart- Department of Transportation attempted to ments and to identify 7 percent of their public boost tourism by preparing publications and rural roads as U.S. highways. In Kentucky, the promotional materials (Kentucky Bicentennial Agricultural Roads Agency was merged with Commission, 1992). the Office of Public Roads (Kentucky Bicenten- But the progress was not smooth, as nial Commission, 1992). conflicting sentiments of people from various There was a marked increase in the states interest groups and regions blocked highway role in highway construction during the 1920s. improvements. In 1924, voters rejected a In 1920, the Legislature created a Highway statewide $75-million bond issue; $50 million Commission, and the Department of State was for roads, $8.25 million for higher educa- Roads and Highways designated a 4,000-mile tion, $5 million for schools, and the rest for primary road system. The Legislature also other purposes. McVey (1949) noted the state enacted a 1-cent gasoline tax, along with a 60- was up against its constitutional debt limit and cent horsepower tax (Kentucky Bicentennial needed funds for expansion. There was Commission, 1992). In 1922, voters approved a criticism that the proposed bond issue served constitutional amendment to allow the state to too many interests. McVey listed three reasons MAP 1: Geographic Features of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. MAP 1: Geographic Features of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Legend Kentucky Counties Metropolitan Counties 1994 Outline of Kentucky ARC region "Problem Cresent" Counties Kentucky Eastern Coalfield Kentucky Western Coalfield Connecting Highways Appalachian Corridor Highways Interstate Highways Kentucky Parkways Miles produced by the UK Appalachian Center 0 50 100 prepared by the UK Appalachian Center 2 Cities of the Commonwealth of Kentucky 3 prepared by the UK Appalachian Center for opposition: 1) fear of increasing the debt; 2) cases, little more than dirt trails, despite the inadequate plans to repay the interest; and 3) major spate of roadbuilding in the 1920s. In too much state debt already. fact, roads remained a huge problem for more The failed reform effort also suggests than 30 years (Pearce, 1987), as the tax-starved fragmentation of the states political and state struggled to raise construction funds that economic leadership that accompanied poor counties were unwilling or unable to massive changes in national and global provide. In the wake of the bond-issue defeat markets after World War I. Many Kentuckians in 1924, the Legislature again increased the from politics and business interests saw the gasoline tax in 1926 (Kentucky Bicentennial need to build roads to keep up with these Commission, 1992). changes. But there was not total unity on this way of thinking. It is logical to suggest that some those from coal interests, among Depression and Detour State others did not want new roads because coal The Depression, with its public works hauling