Tennessee State Route 67

State Route 67
Route information
Maintained by TDOT
Length:	63.88 mi (102.80 km)
Major junctions
West end:	SR 81 in Lamar
	US 321 / SR 381 in Johnson City I-26 / US 23 / US 19W / SR 36 in Johnson City US 19E / SR 91 in Elizabethton US 19E in Hampton US 321 / SR 159 near Butler US 421 / SR 34 / SR 91 in Mountain City US 421 / SR 34 in Trade
East end:	NC 88 east of Trade at North Carolina State Line
Location
Counties:	Washington, Carter, Johnson
Highway system
Tennessee State Routes Interstate US State ← SR 66 SR 68 →

State Route 67 is a state-maintained highway in northeastern Tennessee, including a four-lane divided highway segments in both Washington County and Carter County, and part of a significant two-lane segment passing over the Butler Bridge some 80 feet (24 m) above the TVA Watauga Reservoir (also referred locally to as Watauga Lake) near Butler in Johnson County, Tennessee.

Route description

Washington County

In 1988, Tennessee State Route 67 was completed a freeway between Johnson City and Elizabethton as part of Quad-Cities Beltway projects.^[1]

Carter County

SR 67 enters in Carter County just past the Milligan Highway Exit at the Johnson City/Elizabethton city limits on a freeway four-lane segment. Traveling from Johnson City, this mostly unlighted freeway segment of SR 67 gains some modest elevation before finally rolling over a significant slope and finally arriving at cautioned marked sloped curve just before the freeway segment ends at the traffic signalled SR 359/Milligan Highway exit (near both the Elizabethton Municipal Golf Course and the Elizabethton Fire Department #3 Substation on the right).

Elizabethton

At the SR 359/Milligan Highway exit, SR 67 continues on into Elizabethton as a four-lane down onto a mostly level and commercially developed segment (beginning at the junction SR 362 at Gap Creek Road) that is locally referred to as Elk Avenue. The City of Elizabethton itself mostly lies within two river valleys ringed by high mountains and significant hills.

SR 67/Elk Avenue parallels the Watauga River (to the left and north) before passing by a reconstructed interpretation of Fort Watauga at Fort Sycamore Shoals State Park (the historical site of both the 1775 Transylvania Purchase and also the later staging area of the Overmountain Men defeated British Loyalists in South Carolina during the 1780 Battle of Kings Mountain) and the Sycamore Shoals Hospital (on the left) and moving more distantly away from the Watauga River. There are at least three usually busy local intersections with traffic signals found along this stretch of SR 67, including: Hudson Avenue (Walmart on the left), Bemberg Road (Elizabethton High School on the right), and Mill Street (Krystal's on the left) before arriving at the Y-forked intersection with traffic signals where SR-67 leaves the remainder of Elk Avenue through the Elizabethton downtown business district.

SR-67:The concrete arch
Broad Street Bridge.

SR 67 veers about 45 degrees in direction toward the left at the Elk Avenue Y-fork as commercially developed segment that is locally referred to as Broad Street, with SR 67 passing through usually busy local intersections at North Roan Street (McDonald's on the left; also running into the Old Bristol Highway) and Sycamore Street (Taco John's on the left) before reaching the Broad Street Bridge in Elizabethton.

SR 67/Broad Street first passes over the Doe River in Elizabethton on the c. 1926 concrete arch Broad Street bridge while continuing on as a four lane, and then SR 67 passes through the non-traffic signalled intersection of Main Street before turning south (right) with traffic signals from the next major intersection of Broad Street with U.S. Highway 19-E/SR 67 (and the Food City grocery store) and travelling again on south across the Doe River at the East Side bridges within Elizabethton.

Further on south, the four-laned highway runs closely paralleled with the Doe River (on the left), SR 67 starts gaining some gradual elevation and eventually crossing a section of bridges over the Doe River at the Valley Forge community just out side of the Elizabethton City limits (a left turn off SR 67 and onto Beck Moutanin Road after the first bridge is an alternative route to both the TVA Watauga Dam and the TVA Wilbur Dam).

SR 67 completes a final fourth and curving high double bridge crossings before arriving at Hampton.

Hampton

At the small, mountainous community of Hampton, the four-laned SR 67 veers left off U.S. Highway 19-E and begins as a two-lane segment, briefly passing by commercial areas with Hampton (including a U.S. post office, a Dollar General store and a non-attended public vehicle parking area for Appalachian Trail hikers arriving or entering the "AT" at Hampton), and then exiting Hampton over a high ridge.

Watauga Lake

Upon leaving Hampton, SR 67 again continually increases in elevation and roughly runs several miles parallel between both the shoreline of the massive TVA Watauga Reservoir (also known locally as Watauga Lake) and the Cherokee National Forest. The TVA Watauga Dam can be seen in the distance across the reservoir at the Rat Branch Boat Launch at SR-67.

SR-67 eventually passes over the TVA Watauga Reservoir at the 80-foot (24 m) high Butler Bridge before entering Johnson County.

Johnson County

In Johnson County, the route continues east toward Mountain City, Tennessee, it junctions with SR-167 in the Doeville community and in Mountain City it begins a concurrency with US-421 and junctions with the former alignment of SR-91 and then turns south again, and junctions with SR-167 again heads south to Trade where the route leaves US-421 heads east to end at the North Carolina state line.

Junction list

County	Location	mi	km	Destinations	Notes
Washington	Lamar			SR 81 – Jonesborough, Embreeville, Erwin	Western terminus of SR-67
	Johnson City			US 321 south / SR 381 north	Southern end of US-321 concurrency; southern terminus of SR-381
				I-26 / US 19W / US 23 / SR 36 – Kingsport, Erwin, Asheville
				Milligan Highway / Legion Street – Milligan College	Interchange
Carter	Elizabethton			SR 359 south – Milligan College	Northern terminus of SR-359
				SR 91 south / SR 362 south	Northern terminus of SR-362; Begin SR-91 overlap
				SR 400 south – Watauga, Bluff City	Northern terminus of SR-400
				US 19E north / US 321 south / SR 37 north / SR 91 north – Bluff City, Roan Mountain, Mountain City, Hunter, Shady Valley	Northern end of US-19E/US-321/SR-37/SR-91 overlap
	Hampton			US 19E south / SR 37 south – Roan Mountain, Elk Park, Newland	Southern end of US-19E/SR-37 overlap
				US 321 east / SR 159 east – Boone, North Carolina	Southern end of US-321 concurrency; western terminus of SR-159
Johnson	Doeville			SR 167 east	Western terminus of SR-167
	Mountain City			US 421 north / SR 34 west / SR 418 south	Northern end of US\-421/TN-34 concurrency; Northern terminus of SR-418
				SR 418 north	Southern terminus of SR-418
				SR 167
	Trade			US 421 south / SR 34 east – Boone, North Carolina	Southern end of US-421/TN-34 concurrency
				NC 88 east	Eastern terminus of TN 67 at the North Carolina state line
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus

References