State Highways In Virginia
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The state highway system of 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 ...
is a network of roads maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). As of 2006, the VDOT maintains of
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 ...
s,About VDOT: Virginia's Highway System
Retrieved September 23, 2006.
making it the third-largest system in the
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Interstate and primary highways

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s, totaling 1118 miles (1799 km) in Virginia, are
freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...
s designated by the
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and numbered by the
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test protocols, and guidelines that are used in highway A highway is any public or private road ...
. They are in a special class with respect to federal funding. These interstate highways are as follows: * * * and (both proposed) * * * (proposed) * (proposed) * Primary highways, totaling 8111 miles (13,053 km), consist of
U.S. Route The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these h ...
s, designated and numbered by the
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test protocols, and guidelines that are used in highway A highway is any public or private road ...
, and primary state routes, designated and numbered by the VDOT.
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,
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, and bypass
special route In road transportation in the United States, a special route is a road in a numbered highway system that diverts a specific segment of related traffic away from another road. They are featured in many highway systems; most are found in the Inte ...
s, as well as wye connections (with a ''Y'' suffix appended to the number), are all considered primary routes. , revised July 1, 2003 Primary routes are generally given numbers under 600. The two exceptions - State Route 785 and State Route 895 - are numbered as future
interstate highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Hi ...
spurs. Roadways at many of Virginia's state institutions, such as state universities and colleges, correctional facilities, and state police headquarters, also receive primary highway designations. For example, all of the roadways within
Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...
's campus carry the single designation State Route 314. These roadways may or may not be signed. Other than limited access roads, most primary routes inside Virginia's independent cities are not maintained by the state, but by the city with financial assistance from the state. Some towns also choose to maintain their own streets (see below).


Secondary highways

Virginia has 48,305 miles (77,739 km) of secondary routes. These roads, numbered 600 and up, receive less funding than primary routes. Numbers are only unique within each county, and routes that cross county lines generally, but not always, keep their numbers.


History


Byrd Road Act (1932), Secondary roads system

The secondary roads system in Virginia was formed in 1932, when the financial pressures of the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
prompted the state to take over most county roads through the Byrd Road Act. Virginia's independent cities were not included, but all the counties in Virginia were given the option of turning this responsibility over to the state. Only four counties initially opted not to do so. Of these, Nottoway County opted in the following year, and in the 1950s, Warwick County became an independent city and was consolidated with another, Newport News. By the end of the 20th century, only Arlington and Henrico counties continue to maintain their own roads. Generally, when an area became part of an independent city, through annexation, merger, consolidation, or conversions, the secondary roads passed from the state system to local responsibility. An exception was made by the general assembly in the former Nansemond County, which like Warwick County, became an independent city and consolidated with another,
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in the 1970s. The state still maintained secondary routes in Suffolk until July 1, 2006. This arrangement eventually led to new conflicts over ownership and responsibility for the c. 1928 Kings Highway Bridge across the Nansemond River on State Route 125, which was closed in 2005 by the VDOT for safety reasons. In the years after 1932, the state worked diligently on secondary roads. In 1932, there were only of hard-surfaced secondary roads, out of almost . By 1972, there were only of unpaved secondary roads in Virginia's system. The state's secondary roads system had also grown by 30% from its original size, despite the large geographical areas (and miles of roadway) lost over the years to expanding and additional independent cities and incorporated towns. In the years from 1952 to 1976, virtually all of the counties in the extreme southeastern portion of state in the
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region became consolidated into independent cities; Princess Anne County, Norfolk County, Nansemond County, Elizabeth City County, and Warwick County all ceased to exist, although as previously noted, Warwick County was never in the state secondary road system, and Nansemond County received a special exception to stay in the system for an additional 30 years, a relationship that ended in 2006. In most other areas of the state, additional towns became incorporated or converted to independent city status, and both groups grew in territory, primarily through annexations, such as large portions of Chesterfield County, which were annexed by the
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in 1944 and 1970. However, despite the VDOT's (and its predecessor agencies) accomplishments, the relationship between the counties and the state highway officials since 1932 has always been somewhat strained. The 1932 act took not only financial responsibility from the counties and transferred it to the state, but power and authority as well. Under the Code of Virginia, as amended, "The Boards of Supervisors or other governing bodies...shall have no control, supervision, management, and jurisdiction over...the secondary system of state highways" (§33.1-69).


Considering changes in structure and local control

Late in the 20th century, the problems inherent in this arrangement became especially apparent with regards to the secondary roads system in many fast-growing suburban counties outside incorporated towns and cities. A state-sponsored study in 1998 focused on 14 of the fastest-growing counties identified such issues as drainage, speed limits, and planning and coordination of roads with development as those local leaders felt should be within their ability to control, while the authority to do so was in fact, held by a state agency instead. Citizens seeking accountability, accused both the various county and VDOT officials of finger-pointing. According to the report, "Such an arrangement is unusual among the 50 states." In the early 21st century, the
Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30, ...
was considering legislation to allow some counties to choose to resume control and care for the secondary highways within their boundaries. James City County, with a population that grew by 56% between 1980 and 1990 according to the 1998 VDOT study, was reported by the local news media to be under consideration for a pilot project of this type. The lack of progress in such reform, however, has prompted many residents and businesses of Fairfax County—the state's most populous and congested county—to push for cityhood, to retain a greater share of fuel tax revenues.


Towns

While independent cities generally maintain all secondary roads (streets), and some maintain primary routes within their jurisdiction as well,
incorporated town An incorporated town is a town that is a municipal corporation. Canada Incorporated towns are a form of local government in Canada, which is a responsibility of provincial rather than federal government. United States An incorporated town o ...
s do so on an optional basis. In most of Virginia's towns, all streets are maintained by the VDOT as primary or secondary routes. Those that maintain their own streets, including most primary routes, are as follows: Abingdon, Ashland, Big Stone Gap, Blacksburg, Blackstone, Bluefield, Bridgewater, Christiansburg, Clifton Forge, Culpeper, Farmville, Front Royal, Herndon,
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, Leesburg, Luray, Marion, Orange, Pulaski, Richlands, Rocky Mount,
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, South Hill, Tazewell,
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, Vinton, Warrenton, Wise, Wytheville In the following towns, all primary routes are maintained by the state, but other streets are town-maintained:
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, Chase City, Chincoteague,
Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...
, Elkton,
Grottoes Grottoes may refer to: *The plural form of Grotto (disambiguation) * Grottoes, Virginia, a town named for the nearby cave system Grand Caverns {{Disambig ...
, Narrows, Pearisburg, Saltville, Smithfield, Strasburg, Woodstock


Numbering

Many, but not all, secondary routes in Virginia are streets and unpaved country roads that are mostly short in nature. Roadways on public (
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) school campuses are also secondary routes and are numbered in the 9000 to 9999 range. Unlike other secondary routes, these do not duplicate within the state and are often unsigned. For internal record keeping, such as the tabulation of traffic counts, the VDOT disambiguates between counties by prefixing the county unit of the VDOT that maintains it; for example, State Route 611 in Fairfax County is labeled SR 29-611. Also, secondary route numbers are assigned to some roads not maintained by the state, such as city and town roads and roads in Arlington and Henrico counties.


Frontage roads

Frontage roads total 333 miles (536 km) and are numbered on a statewide system. The numbers bear an ''F'' prefix (e.g., State Route F-1000 off State Route 7 in
Loudoun County Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. The county seat is Leesburg, Virgi ...
).


Other roads

Roads in Virginia other than state highways include the following. Cities and towns maintain 10,561 (16,996 km) miles of urban streets with the help of state funds. Most towns contract street maintenance to the VDOT, in which case the streets have ''T'' prefixed numbers. As noted above, two counties in the state maintain their own roads: Arlington County (359 miles - 578 km) and Henrico County (1279 miles - 2058 km). Virginia includes 51.12 miles (82.27 km) of
toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and ...
s maintained by other entities, typically through public-private partnerships. These are the Boulevard Bridge, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, Chesapeake Expressway, Dulles Greenway, and Jordan Bridge. In addition, the U.S. Government maintains 382.99 miles (616.36 km) of numbered routes and other major roads in Virginia; the ones without normal numbers are assigned special unsigned numbers. The
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
maintains several parkways - the
Blue Ridge Parkway The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and National Scenic Byway, All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. The parkway, which is the longest linear park in the U.S., runs for through 29 counties in Virginia and ...
(SR 48), Colonial Parkway (SR 90003),
George Washington Memorial Parkway The George Washington Memorial Parkway, colloquially the G.W. Parkway, is a limited-access road, limited-access parkway that runs along the south bank of the Potomac River from Mount Vernon, Virginia, northwest to McLean, Virginia, and is maint ...
(SR 90005), and
Skyline Drive Skyline Drive is a National Parkway that runs the entire length of the National Park Service's Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, generally along the ridge of the mountains. The drive's northern terminus is at ...
(SR 48). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains State Route 4 over the John H. Kerr Dam and State Route 143 in Fort Monroe, and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority operates and maintains State Route 267 (the Dulles Toll Road) and owns the Dulles Access Road (SR 90004). 


Signage

The markers for primary routes show the route number in a rounded shield shape, while those for secondary roads and frontage roads use a circular highway shield. A separate series of signs, posted at intersections, shows the route number on a small rectangular strip and does not distinguish among the various types of highways except by using the ''F'' prefix for frontage roads, the ''T'' prefix for state-maintained town roads (where they exist), or the ''B'' prefix for
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 ...
s.


See also

* *


References


External links


VDOT 2005 Traffic DataVirginia Highway EndpointsVirginia Highways ProjectAARoads Virginia Highways Page
{{US state highways