Don Kiel and Alan Bridwell] walked into my office with a plan to upgrade Highway 23 to interstate standards," Williams said. "And all it cost us was to change the signs." Later that year, a section of US 23 near Johnson City was designated as I-181, the first section of US 23 to be designated as an interstate in either Tennessee or North Carolina. Williams claims that this project was a catalyst for the five-state I-26 extension project. On March 1, 1994, a bill sponsored by State Representative Hubert Collins was passed by the Kentucky State Legislature. This bill allowed US 23 to become known as "The Country Music Highway" in order to recognize all the country music stars that had come from the counties the highway passed through. At every county line there is a sign that lists the country music star or stars from that county. Also, in the early 2000s, the U.S. 23 Country Music Highway Museum opened in Paintsville to further commemorate these legendary people. Law enforcement officials from Ohio and Kentucky set up the "US Route 23 Drug Taskforce" in 1996 to patrol the highway for drug trafficking, attempting to halt a major artery of drug networks bringing high-quality cannabis grown in Kentucky north for distribution in Ohio and elsewhere. Lately, it has been primarily used to stop the flow of narcotics from large cities like Columbus, OH, Dayton, OH, and Cleveland, OH into Portsmouth, OH, all of which have to pass through US 23 to reach Portsmouth. Signs can be spotted along Route 23 in Ohio from Portsmouth to Columbus warning traffickers that efforts have been taken to prevent their actions. Some random police stings have been set up at portions of the highway. During the past few years the highway has been widened to four or more lanes through its entire length within Kentucky and is one of the more scenic routes in Kentucky. It is six lanes in parts of the city of Pikeville. In 2002, it was officially named a National Scenic Byway. US 23 also gains attention during college football season as it holds a direct connection between Ann Arbor, Michigan (home of the University of Michigan) and Columbus, Ohio (site of Ohio State University) and the Michigan–Ohio State football rivalry. Each year at the end of November a convoy of fans travels either north or south depending on where