While KY 9 is not an expressway, it nonetheless serves as the shortest highway link between Cincinnati and Ashland, Kentucky.

The only municipalities on the highway are Vanceburg and Maysville and suburban areas of Cincinnati at its western terminus.

It begins at a traffic circle intersection with KY 8 in Newport in Campbell County.

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.