Virginia State Route 712 (Brunswick County)

State Route 712 is a secondary state highway in Brunswick County, Virginia, United States. It is an old alignment of the road that is now U.S. Route 1, and is still officially part of the Jefferson Davis Highway.^[2] SR 712 runs from State Route 606, just south of U.S. Route 58 at Edgerton, north to U.S. Route 1 at the Nottoway River.

State Route 1, now U.S. Route 1, was initially defined to run via Warfield, about halfway between Alberta and the Nottoway River. The State Highway Commission recommended in late 1921 that the General Assembly redefine it to run via Smoky Ordinary (between the Nottoway River and Edgerton), "as this is a more direct route and combines with Route 12 for a distance of about four [additional] miles".^[3] This change was soon made, putting SR 1 along current SR 712; in the 1923 renumbering, SR 1 became State Route 31.

In 1925, SR 31 was moved to the direct routing northeast from South Hill,^[4] replacing State Route 314, as the federal Bureau of Public Roads had refused to add the longer Edgerton alignment to the primary federal aid system.^[5] The Edgerton-Nottoway River route became State Route 122 (a spur of State Route 12) then,^[6] State Route 402 in the 1928 renumbering, and State Route 140 in the 1933 renumbering. (SR 140 also included a 0.85-mile (1.37 km) piece of State Route 670, from US 58 west of Edgerton south to State Route 606, until 1942;^[7] this had been State Route 438 before 1933.) SR 140 was transferred to the secondary system, becoming State Route 712, in 1949, as it showed "no indication of ever becoming of primary importance" with an annual average daily traffic count of 223 vehicles per day in 1948.^[8] (SR 712 now has an AADT of 1700 in its center section.^[1])

References

1. ^ ^{a b} 2005 Virginia Department of Transportation Jurisdiction Report - Daily Traffic Volume Estimates - Brunswick CountyPDF (173 KiB)
2. ^ Virginia Route IndexPDF (239 KiB), revised July 1, 2003
3. ^ Staff (PDF). Minutes of the Meeting of the State Highway Commission, Held at Richmond, Virginia, November 29th, and December 3rd, 1921, and an Inspection Trip, November 30th, December 1st, and 2nd, 1921, and meeting Washington, D. C. December 2nd, 1921 (Report). Commonwealth of Virginia. http://www.virginiadot.org/meetings/minutes_pdf/CTB-12-1921-01.pdf.  , page 47
4. ^ Staff (PDF). Minutes of the Meeting of the State Highway Commission, Held at Richmond, Virginia, May 25, 1925 (Report). Commonwealth of Virginia. http://www.virginiadot.org/meetings/minutes_pdf/CTB-05-1925-01.pdf.  , page 12
5. ^ Staff (PDF). Minutes of the Meeting of the State Highway Commission Held at Richmond, Virginia, December 11th and 12th, 1923 (Report). Commonwealth of Virginia. http://www.virginiadot.org/meetings/minutes_pdf/CTB-12-1923-01.pdf.  , page 20
6. ^ Staff (PDF). Minutes of the Meeting of the State Highway Commission of Virginia, Held January 20, 1927, Richmond, Virginia (Report). Commonwealth of Virginia. http://www.virginiadot.org/meetings/minutes_pdf/CTB-01-1927-01.pdf.  , page 14
7. ^ Staff (PDF). Minutes of the Meeting of the State Highway Commission of Virginia, held in Richmond, September 15, 1942 (Report). Commonwealth of Virginia. http://www.virginiadot.org/meetings/minutes_pdf/CTB-09-1942-01.pdf.  , page 16
8. ^ Staff (PDF). Minutes of the Meeting of the State Highway Commission of Virginia, Held in Roanoke and Richmond, April 19 and 20, 1949 (Report). Commonwealth of Virginia. http://www.virginiadot.org/meetings/minutes_pdf/CTB-04-1949-01.pdf.  , page 5