US 460 now begins when it splits from US 60 a few miles east of downtown Frankfort. It is a winding two-lane highway with no shoulders and intersects US 62 and I-75 at Georgetown. It proceeds to Paris, where it serves as the town's "Main Street" and intersects US 27 and US 68. The next major intersection is with I-64 in Mount Sterling. It proceeds through Frenchburg and West Liberty. In Salyersville, the Mountain Parkway ends by merging onto it. It is a 3-lane highway for 14 miles and then it merges with US 23 in Paintsville. US 460 East follows US-23 South through Prestonsburg and Pikeville. The route enters the southwestern part of Virginia.
Virginia and West Virginia
U.S. Route 460 runs east-west through the southern part of the Virginia. It has two separate pieces in Virginia, joined by a relatively short section in West Virginia. Most of US 460 is a four-lane divided highway. US 460 from Interstate 81 at Christiansburg west to Pikeville, Kentucky, including the piece in West Virginia, is Corridor Q of the Appalachian Development Highway System. From West Virginia east to I-81, US 460 is also part of the proposed Interstate 73.
History
The earliest origins of this road were as part of the track once known as the Trader's Path, a Virginia colonial trail dating from the 17th century that led from Augusta County to present-day Roanoke. Before it was commissioned as a federally designated route in the late 1940s, US 460 was designated as Kentucky Route 4 from the western Virginia state line near Grundy to Millard, Kentucky. It was Kentucky Route 40 from Paintsville to Lexington. In the pre-Interstate era, US 460 was a major highway, passing from Frankfort through Louisville, Kentucky and Evansville, Indiana, and ending in St. Louis, Missouri, after crossing the MacArthur Bridge. Interstate 64 has supplanted most of old US 460 as a more direct route. The stretch through Indiana and Illinois was eliminated in November 1976. Old US 460 has been redesignated in these areas as parts of State Road 66 and State Road 62 in Indiana; and part of Illinois Route 15, Illinois Route 142, and Illinois Route 14 in that state. However, its parent route, US 60 has not been supplanted by I-64 and converted to a state highway in the greater Louisville area. Many years after the road's elimination in Indiana in 1977, some older residents and even businesses along what is now Indiana State Road 62 still refer tothe road as "Highway 460." Older billboards retain that designation in the St. Meinrad area. Some current telephone books also contain listings for those living on "Hwy 460." When Fishtrap Lake was created in Pike County, Kentucky, US 460 was realigned to its current route from Salyersville to Paintsville. The former US 460 leading to the lake is now Kentucky Routes 1499 and 1789. The part between Paintsville and Millard remained U.S. Highway 23 and Kentucky Route 80.
