Kentucky Route 3294

Kentucky Route 3294
Route information
Maintained by KYTC
Length:	9.445 mi[1] (15.200 km)
Major junctions
West end:	US 60 / KY 180 in Cannonsburg
East end:	US 23 / US 60 in Catlettsburg
Location
Counties:	Boyd
Highway system
Highways in Kentucky Interstate US State Parkways ← KY 3293 KY 3295 →

Kentucky Route 3294 is a state maintained highway in Boyd County, Kentucky. It was originally commissioned as a state rural route in 1987 under the term of governor Martha Layne Collins, who led a statewide adoption of many higher traffic county roads and former state owned roads as state highways for maintenance purposes.

The original designation began at the intersection with U.S. 23 in Catlettsburg, then followed Cemetery Road which becomes Catlettsburg-Cannonsburg Pike (aka Cannonsburg Road)which terminatesnat U.S. 60 aat Cannonsburg, an unincorporated hamlet in western Boyd County.

KY Route 3294 is noted on U.S. 23 and U.S. 60 informational material as a replacement designation for the highways' original route through Catlettsburg and also as part of the original Midland Trail, which was popular and important stagecoach road bte.

History

The original 1987 route was approximately 6 miles long and was signed on the highway originally known as the Midland Trail prior to the 1926 designation of U.S. Route 60. Midland Trail became U.S. 60 throughout Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky in 1926, with the creation of the Federal Highway system. From 1926 until 1964, this stretch of road was signed as U.S. 60 Alt. as the main routing of U.S. 60 was multiplexed from Catlettsburg with U.S. 23 and followed it slightly north to go through downtown Catlettsburg and Ashland before rejoining the Midland Trail at Cannonsburg. After 1964, the Alt. U.S. 60 designation was removed and the stretch of road was turned over to Boyd County for maintenance. It was maintained by the county until 1987.

In November 1990, Kentucky Route 3294 was extended 2 miles north of its original eastern terminus with U.S. 23/Louisa Road in Catlettsburg, to another junction with U.S. 23, north of downtown. This was when the U.S. 23 Business designation was decommissioned and U.S. 60 was moved from the original 1926 routing through downtown Catlettsburg to multiplex with U.S. 23, not a far move as U.S. 23 was only one block west of the original route.

In 1970, when U.S. 23 was widened from two to four lanes from 34th Street in Catlettsburg to downtown Ashland, on a different routing which bypassed downtown Catlettsburg, Catlettsburg City officials immediately requested that KY.D.O.H. continue to maintain the stretch of old U.S. 23 and US 60 that followed surface streets through downtown Catlettsburg. The state respected those wishes and kept the U.S. 60 designation signed on that route through downtown following Oakland Avenue/Louisa and Center Streets just as it had been since 1926. Also, this alignment was also signed as U.S. 23 Business. In 1988, the city council agreed to allow KYDOH to move the U.S. 60 designation to the four lane U.S. 23 under the agreement that the original route would be maintained as a state highway. At that time KY 3294 was extended across U.S. 23 on 36th Street to follow the old U.S. 23/60 routing with its terminating junction being U.S. 23/60 on the north end of town.

Major intersections

The entire route is in Boyd County.

Location	mi[2]	km	Destinations	Notes
Cannonsburg	0.000	0.000	US 60 (Purple Heart Highway) / KY 180
​	3.819	6.146	KY 538
Catlettsburg	7.548	12.147	US 23 (Louisa Street)
	7.725	12.432	US 60 (35th Street)
	9.445	15.200	US 23 / US 60
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

Route map: Bing / Google