Kentucky Route 9

Kentucky Route 9 is a 116.285 mi state highway maintained by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The highway extends from Grayson to Newport (a city in Kentucky across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Ohio), roughly paralleling the Ohio River between Vanceburg and Newport.

Most of its route, from Grayson to the Interstate 275 (I-275) loop in Wilder, is part of the AA Highway, except for its northern 5.3 mi which continues from the terminus of the AA Highway at I-275 into Newport.

While KY 9 is not an expressway, it nonetheless serves as the shortest highway link between Cincinnati and Ashland, Kentucky. Most of the route is a rural two-lane highway. The only municipalities on the highway are Vanceburg and Maysville and suburban areas of Cincinnati at its western terminus.

Route description
KY 9 follows a general northwest–southeast orientation. It begins at a traffic circle intersection with KY 8 in Newport in Campbell County. It is briefly named Chestnut Way, and then Licking Pike as it parallels the Licking River. At the I-275 interchange, it becomes part of the AA Highway and then passes the outskirts of its namesake Alexandria. Within Campbell County, the road is a four-lane arterial highway.

The next segment passes through a remote, hilly region where the road is generally three lanes, with a passing lane present at uphill grades.

A few miles west of Maysville, the route runs concurrently with KY 10 begins, and the road becomes an arterial highway again. The concurrency ends within Maysville, and upon passing out of the city, the road becomes a two-lane rural highway through an agricultural region.

KY 9 then crosses the Allegheny Escarpment into the Appalachian Mountains at the same time that another concurrency with KY 10 begins. The remainder of KY 9 passes through mountainous terrain and is generally two lanes with periodic passing lanes. After passing through Vanceburg, KY 9 turns south and KY 10 continues east; both routes are signed as part of the AA Highway. KY 9 ends at KY 1/KY 7 just north of Grayson and a block from the I-64 interchange.