U.S. Route 62 in Kentucky

US 62 runs concurrently with US 51 for its first 16.17 miles (26.02 km) in Ballard and Carlisle counties in the Jackson Purchase region of southwestern Kentucky. US 62 separates from US 51 at Bardwell, where it turns northeastward towards Paducah. It then intersects Interstate 24 (I-24) near Whitehaven, the Kentucky Welcome Center, and it runs concurrently with US 45 and US 60, along with parts of the I-24 Business Loop in downtown Paducah.[3]

The George A. Ellis Bridge (foreground) carries U.S. 62 and U.S. 641 over the Tennessee River.

After entering Marshall County, US 62 continues eastward to cross I-24 two more times, the second time before traversing Kentucky Dam and into southern Livingston County. The third time US 62 crosses I-24 is near Eddyville during its concurrency with US 641 in Lyon County.[2][3]

It then intersects I-69 (Western Kentucky Parkway) east of Eddyville before entering Caldwell County. US 62 closely follows the Western Kentucky Parkway (also known to locals as the WK Parkway) through Caldwell, Hopkins, Muhlenberg, Ohio, Grayson, and Hardin counties. The route traverses several towns and cities such as Princeton, Dawson Springs, Nortonville, Greenville, and Central City. In Muhlenberg County from Greenville to Central City, the US Route closely follows the four-lane Kentucky Route 189 (KY 189), which carries through traffic around the city of Powderly while US 62 traverses the urban areas of the three cities. Near Beaver Dam, after the route's US 231 concurrency through that city, US 62 does cross I-165 (formerly the William H. Natcher Parkway), but without access to that freeway. The route continues eastward into Grayson County towards Caneyville, Leitchfield, and Clarkson before reaching Elizabethtown, in Hardin County.[2]

After reaching Elizabethtown, it has a concurrency with KY 61, crossing exit 94 on I-65, and into Nelson County. US 62 begins to parallel the Bluegrass Parkway, and it does so all the way to Versailles. Beyond Versailles, US 62 turns northeastward to cross I-64 and reaches Georgetown.[2]

US 62 continues on a northeasterly track into the northwesternmost corner of Bourbon County before entering Harrison County. It then traverses towns such as Cynthiana, Oddville, and Mt. Olivet, before reaching the Mason County seat, Maysville. There, it runs concurrently with US 68 Business into downtown Maysville (the main alignment of US 68 was rerouted onto a bypass route), and crosses the Ohio River into Brown County, Ohio, where it meets the main alignment of US 68.[2]

Before US 62 was certified in Kentucky, the route from Bardwell to Lawrenceburg, along with the present-day US 127 between Lawrenceburg and Frankfort (running concurrently with KY 35 at the time), and the original alignment of US 421 between Frankfort and Lexington (mostly now KY 1681), were all signed as Kentucky Route 50 (KY 50). KY 50 ran the entire original alignment from Bardwell to Lawrenceburg until US 62 was certified sometime before 1934.[4][5] However, the KY 50 designation remained on the present-day alignment of KY 112 in Hopkins County from just east of Dawson Springs to Earlington, since US 62 was routed directly to Nortonville from Dawson Springs. The KY 112 designation in Hopkins County replaced KY 50 sometime around 1936.[6]

In eastern McCracken and into southern Livingston and northern Lyon Counties, US 62 originally followed US 60 east of Paducah to Smithland, where it turned right using present-day alignments of KY 453 and KY 93 to Eddyville. That segment of US 62 was rerouted to its current location before the end of the 1930s.[5]

Until 1963, US 62 followed a route from Kuttawa, into what was the inner part of Eddyville, and followed a due easterly path to Princeton via Saratoga Springs.[7] This original alignment is now parts of Kentucky Routes 93 and KY 293, while US 62 was rerouted onto the former KY 278, where it meets up with US 641, and to provide a proper intersection with the Western Kentucky Parkway west of Princeton.[8]

When I-24's route through Kentucky was completed at some time between 1976 and 1979, US 62's junction with the WK Parkway was closed off as a result of the extension project to extend the WK Parkway to Eddyville to build its western terminus at I-24's exit 42 interchange. The original connector is still in existence as a county-maintained road, with a dead end where the connector connected to the parkway where the Mile Marker 10 toll booth was originally located until 1987.

In Harrison County, US 62 previously followed a route east of Cynthiana to start its concurrently with US 68 just south of Blue Lick State Park until it was rerouted to its current course to Maysville prior to 1940.[5]

In the early 2010s, a section of US 62 in western Anderson County was reconstructed to accommodate the new intersection with KY 555, which was extended from its junction with the Bluegrass Parkway in northern Washington County. US 62's junction with KY 248 was also reconstructed.[9]