History of state highways in Virginia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Virginia state highways
edit
Primary - Secondary - History
Renumberings: 1928 - 1933 - 1940
The system used from 1923 to 1928 involved two-digit routes (red) with three- and four-digit spurs (orange). District 1 (Bristol) is shown here.
The system used from 1923 to 1928 involved two-digit routes (red) with three- and four-digit spurs (orange). District 1 (Bristol) is shown here.

Virginia's State Highway Commission was formed by the General Assembly in 1906, and in 1918 the General Assembly designated a 4002-mile (6441 km) state highway system to be maintained by the Commission. Beginning in 1922, the Commission was authorized to add annually mileage equal to 2.5% of the original system (100 miles or 161 km).[1] These highways were numbered from 1 into the 20s; by 1922 suffixed spurs had been added (such as 7X from 7). In 1923, the first renumbering was implemented, in which State Routes 1 to 9 became 31 to 39. The spurs were renamed to use numbers rather than letters (such as 114 from 11), and four-digit numbers were used for spurs of spurs (such as 1141 from 114) or for "rollovers" (such as 1010 from 10, as 101 to 109 were all in use).[2]

The system used from 1928 to 1933 involved two-digit routes (red) with single-district three-digit routes (orange). District 1 (Bristol) is shown here.
The system used from 1928 to 1933 involved two-digit routes (red) with single-district three-digit routes (orange). District 1 (Bristol) is shown here.

The United States Numbered Highways were designated in late 1926. In 1928, the state routes were renumbered again; all the spurs were instead numbered by district, using the district number as the first digit. State routes that were also U.S. Routes had signage removed, but continued to be referred to by the Department of Highways[2] (renamed from the State Highway Commission in 1927[1]).

The DoH took over road maintenance from most counties in 1932, forming the state secondary system.[1] These routes were assigned numbers from 600 up, so the primary routes were renumbered again in 1933, assigning smaller ranges to each district. State routes with numbers that conflicted with U.S. Routes were renumbered, and the unsigned concurrencies were dropped. The numbers from 2 to 9 were again assigned (1 was not because of U.S. Route 1):[2]

State Route 10 is the smallest number to survive from the 1918 system to the present day, though in a greatly modified form. State Route 35 is largely the same as the original SR 5, renumbered in 1923.

Main article: 1940 Virginia state highway renumbering

Two more renumberings took place in 1940, when routes ending at state lines were renumbered to match the adjacent state, and in 1958, when routes with numbers used for Interstate Highways were renumbered.[2]

Contents

[edit] Historic lists of routes

[edit] 1918-1923

[edit] 1923-1928

[edit] 1928-1933

[edit] District 1

[edit] District 2

[edit] District 3

[edit] District 4

[edit] District 5

[edit] District 6

[edit] District 7

[edit] District 8

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c A History of Roads in VirginiaPDF (3.70 MB)
  2. ^ a b c d Virginia Highways Project: A History Of Route Numbering