State Route 20 (SR 20) is a primary

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either Route number, numbered or maintained by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered ...

in the U.S. state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. The state highway runs from

U.S. Route 15 U.S. Route 15 or U.S. Highway 15 (US 15) is a United States Numbered Highway, serving the states of South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. The route is signed north–south, from US ...

(US 15) in Dillwyn north to SR 3 in

Wilderness Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plurale tantum, plural) are Earth, Earth's natural environments that have not been significantly modified by human impact on the environment, human activity, or any urbanization, nonurbanized land not u ...

. SR 20 is a C-shaped route that connects

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the seat of government of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Quee ...

with

Farmville ''FarmVille'' is a series of agriculture-simulation social network games developed and published by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to '' Happy Farm'' and ''Farm Town''. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farmland management, such as plo ...

(via US 15) in

Southside Virginia Southside, or Southside Virginia, has traditionally referred to the portion of the state south of the James River, the geographic feature from which the term derives its name. This was the first area to be developed in the colonial period. Dur ...

. The state highway also links Charlottesville to Fredericksburg (via SR 3) by way of Orange County, within which SR 20 is the main east–west highway and intersects US 15 again in the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

. SR 20 is a

Virginia Byway A Virginia Byway is a scenic road designated by the Commonwealth of Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-A ...

from Scottsville to

Route description

SR 20 begins at an intersection with US 15 (James Madison Highway) just west of the town of Dillwyn. The state highway heads north as the two-lane undivided Constitution Route, which passes through the hamlet of Allenslevel, the site of Buckingham Correctional Center. SR 20 crosses the Slate River and passes through the community of

Centenary A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century. Notable events Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include: * Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...

on its way through northwestern Buckingham County to its crossing of the

James River The James River is a river in Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows from the confluence of the Cowpasture and Jackson Rivers in Botetourt County U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowli ...

. On the north side of the bridge, the state highway enters the town of Scottsville, through which the highway passes as Valley Street. SR 20 meets SR 6 (Main Street) in the center of town. The two highways run together to the north end of town where SR 6 splits west as Irish Road. SR 20 continues through southern Albemarle County as Scottsville Road. The state highway heads through Glendower, where the highway passes close to the historical

presidential Presidential may refer to: * "Presidential" (song), a 2005 song by YoungBloodZ * Presidential Airways (charter), an American charter airline based in Florida * Presidential Airways (scheduled), an American passenger airline active in the 1980s * ...

retreat Pine Knot and Christ Church Glendower. North of Keene, SR 20 crosses the Hardware River as the watercourse and the highway passes through a gap between Green Mountain and Carters Mountain, which are part of the

Southwest Mountains The Southwest Mountains of Virginia are a mountain range centered on Charlottesville, parallel to and geologically associated with the Blue Ridge Mountains, which lie about 30 miles (50 km) to the west. The range is breached by the Rivann ...

. The state highway follows the west side of the latter mountain to the community of Mill Creek, where the highway expands to a four-lane divided highway at its intersection with SR 53 (Thomas Jefferson Parkway). SR 53 provides access to

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

and

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American Founding Father of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as presiden ...

's respective estates of

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...

and Ash Lawn–Highland. SR 20 passes the entrance to Piedmont Virginia Community College just south of its

partial cloverleaf interchange A partial cloverleaf interchange or parclo is a modification of a cloverleaf interchange. The design has been well received, and has since become one of the most popular freeway-to-arterial interchange designs in North America. It has also bee ...

with

Interstate 64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at Interstate 70, I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and U.S. Route 61, US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern ter ...

. SR 20 becomes Monticello Avenue on crossing Moores Creek into the city of Charlottesville. The street reduces to a two-lane undivided road and curves west to Avon Street, onto which the state highway turns north. At Garrett Street, SR 20 continues onto four-lane divided 9th Street, which crosses over

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

's Piedmont Subdivision into downtown Charlottesville. The state highway passes to the east of the Downtown Mall and meets US 250 Business, which heads eastbound along Market Street and westbound along High Street, which are both two-way streets. The business route joins SR 20 in a concurrency on High Street, which passes by the former

Martha Jefferson Hospital Martha Jefferson Hospital is a nonprofit community hospital owned by Sentara Healthcare and located in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was founded in 1903 by eight local physicians. The 176-bed hospital has an employed staff of 1,600 and has 365 a ...

. US 250 Business reaches its eastern terminus at

US 250 U.S. Route 250 (US 250) is a route of the United States Numbered Highway System, and is a spur of U.S. Route 50. It currently runs for from Richmond, Virginia, to Sandusky, Ohio. It passes through the states of Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohi ...

(Long Street). SR 20 turns east onto US 250 to cross the Free Bridge over the

Rivanna River The Rivanna River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the James River in central Virginia in the United States. The Rivanna's tributaries o ...

to leave the city limits. SR 20 heads north from the Charlottesville vicinity along Stony Point Road, which parallels the west flank of the Southwest Mountains. The state highway passes the communities of

Key West Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...

, Eastham, Stony Point, and Rosena. SR 20 enters Orange County and its name changes to Constitution Highway south of Barboursville, which contains the ruins of the namesake estate. The state highway has a short concurrency with

US 33 U.S. Route 33 (US 33) is a United States Numbered Highway that runs northwest–southeast for from northern Indiana to Richmond, Virginia, passing through Ohio and West Virginia en route. Although most odd-numbered U.S. routes are north– ...

(Spotswood Trail) in which the highways pass under

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

's Washington District. SR 20 heads northeast and intersects SR 231 (Blue Ridge Turnpike) north of

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

. The state highway continues east and closely parallels the railroad through Montpelier Station, which is named for

James Madison James Madison (June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison was popularly acclaimed as the ...

's estate Montpelier on the south side of the tracks. SR 20 continues east to the town of Orange, where the highway enters town as Main Street. At the

Holladay House Formerly called the Doctor Holladay House, the Holladay House in Orange, Virginia (c.a. 1830) is on the nationally recognizeJourney Through Hallowed Ground Named for Dr. Lewis Holladay, a prominent Virginia physician, the Holladay House has witnes ...

, the state highway turns south onto Caroline Street while Main Street continues east SR 20 Business. SR 20 passes the James Madison Museum before US 15 (Madison Street) joins the highway in a concurrency to pass under the Washington District rail line after the counties sole remaining tractor crossing. The state highway turns east onto Berry Hill Road and passes under another Norfolk Southern rail line before receiving the other end of SR 20 Business (Byrd Street). SR 20 becomes Constitution Highway again on leaving the town of Orange. The state highway passes Orange County Airport and intersects US 522 (Zachary Taylor Highway) between Unionville and Rhoadesville. SR 20 briefly passes through part of

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park is a unit of the National Park Service in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and elsewhere in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, Spotsylvania County, commemorating four major battles in the American Civil ...

near the site of the

Battle of the Wilderness The Battle of the Wilderness was fought on May 5–7, 1864, during the American Civil War. It was the first battle of Lieutenant general (United States), Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against General (C ...

before reaching its northern terminus at SR 3 (Germanna Highway) in the community of Locust Grove just west of the

Spotsylvania County Spotsylvania County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is a suburb approximately 60 miles (90km) south of D.C. It is a part of the Northern Virginia region and the D.C. area. As of 2024, Spotsylvania County is the 14th most populat ...

line.

History

SR 20 was first created in 1933 with the renumbering of SR 316 between US 15 in Dillwyn and SR 6 in Scottsville and a separate section to the north that replaced SR 702 between SR 231 in Somerset and SR 3 in Wilderness. In 1941, the southern section was extended north from SR 6 to US 250 in Charlottesville, and the northern section was extended south from SR 231 to US 33 in Barboursville. In 1950, the two sections of SR 20 were finally connected via a replacement of SR 613 between Charlottesville and Barboursville. In May 2019, the intersection of SR 20 and I-64 was changed. Travelers exiting I-64 west and turning left onto SR 20 south now have a dedicated lane to turn into. As a result, travelers only have to cross SR 20 north and then merge with SR 20 south.

Future

Two new roundabouts have been approved to be implemented along SR 20. The first would be at the intersection of SR 20 and SR 231 in Somerset. Construction is expected to begin in 2020. The second roundabout would be at the intersection of SR 20 and US 33 just south of Barboursville. This project might also include reconstruction of the intersection of SR 738 and US 33, just south of the SR 20/US 33 intersection. Funding has been approved, but no dates for construction completion have been announced.

Major intersections

Orange business route

SR 20 Business is a

business route A business route (or business loop, business spur, or city route) in the United States is a short special route that branches off a parent numbered highway at its beginning, continues through the central business district of a nearby city or to ...

of SR 20 in the town of Orange. The business route runs between intersections with SR 20 on either side of town. SR 20 Business begins as Main Street where SR 20 turns south onto Caroline Street next to the Holladay House. The business route intersects US 15 (Madison Street) and meets Norfolk Southern Railway's Washington District at grade. SR 20 Business turns southeast onto Byrd Street to rejoin SR 20 on a tangent.

References

External links

Virginia Highways Project: VA 20
{{s-end 020 State Route 020 State Route 020 State Route 020 State Route 020 020