Rebuilding U S 460

The weekend edition of the Appalachian had a story on the groundbreaking for two more segments of new U S 460 that have just been contracted out; one a continuation of the segment already underway on Beaver and the other the interchange that will connect the new road to U S 23.

This highway has remained largely invisible to the public; therefore it’s difficult to know how much progress has been made. That’s because 460, like rebuilt U S 119, is going through virgin territory. Consequently there are few places that offer a look-see at the progress that is being made.

You can see that part that will soon be joined to 23 from this highway, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to see it if you’re doing the driving because that requires you to divert your attention from the road and this road is dangerous enough if your eyes are riveted to it.

If you care to go out of the way a bit-and again, I wouldn’t recommend it, because the route I’m going to suggest is not for the faint of heart-you can go up Greasy Creek to where the road forks off. There by the now empty Greasy Creek Elementary School, you can see a part of the road that is under construction. If you take the right fork and cross the mountain into the head of Wolfpit, you’ll not only be able to see where the new roadbed had been laid out, you’ll actually get to drive on part of it, because the new road now divides this community.

Somewhere around the mouth of Wolfpit, you’ll part company with the new road, but if you go right on the Marrowbone road, you’ll soon pick up on the route the new road will be taking. If a tamer ride is what you desire, you can go up Beaver for a few miles and you’ll see the segment that will soon be continued.

Another way to get a view of the road is to get on Google Earth. Just remember that these images may be a bit dated. Once there, if you type in Pike Co., Ky., you’ll be taken over the county out to a point where you can not only see the whole of it, but pretty much every surrounding county and parts of Virginia and West Virginia as well. From here, it depends on how skilled you are in navigating your computer as to what you’ll see. Zoom in and you’ll see areas such as Shelbiana marked. It’s easy enough to find your way from there, and you should be able to see 460’s new path from beginning to end.

If you want to find a better view than will generally be offered from Google Earth-and these views are good only so high above the earth-you can google U S 460 online and it will take you to a site called, oddly enough, us460online.com.

On page one of this site, you can click on “construction images”, and here you can see photos of the highway taken by the state. These images let you see the whole project, and from here you get a good idea of the 460 we’ll be driving on one of these days-that is, if we live long enough.