State Route 249 (SR 249) 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 ...

. Known as New Kent Highway, the state highway runs from

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 ...

(I-64) and SR 33 near Bottoms Bridge east to SR 33 and SR 30 at Angelview Church. According to signage on the segment of New Kent Highway between

U.S. Route 60 U.S. Route 60 is a major east–west United States highway, traveling from southwestern Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean coast in Virginia. The highway's eastern terminus is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where it is known as General Booth Bouleva ...

(US 60) and I-64, SR 249 extends slightly south from I-64 to end at US 60. SR 249, which is the old alignment of SR 33 before that highway was rerouted onto I-64, is the main local highway of northern New Kent County, providing access to 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 ...

of New Kent.

Route description

SR 249 begins at a

partial cloverleaf 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 road, arterial Interchange (road), interchange designs ...

interchange with I-64 and SR 33 near Bottoms Bridge at the western end of New Kent County. New Kent Highway continues south as SR 33 to that highway's junction with

US 60 U.S. Route 60 is a major east–west United States highway, traveling from southwestern Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean coast in Virginia. The highway's eastern terminus is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where it is known as General Booth Bouleva ...

though this short segment of road is also signed as SR 249. SR 249 passes through the interchange as a four-lane divided highway but reduces to a two-lane undivided road as it curves east. The state highway passes through the hamlet of Quinton and meets the northern end of SR 106 (Emmaus Church Road) at a

roundabout A roundabout, a rotary and a traffic circle are types of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junct ...

in Talleysville. East of Carps Corner, the site of the highway's junction with SR 155 (Courthouse Road), SR 249 passes through New Kent, which features the county courthouse, county offices, and the county's

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

and middle school. The state highway reaches its eastern terminus at a four-way intersection with SR 30 and SR 33 at Angelview Church. SR 33 passes through the intersection as Eltham Road. SR 30 heads east concurrently with SR 33 toward

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

and southeast along a continuation of New Kent Highway toward

Williamsburg Williamsburg may refer to: Places *Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia *Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City *Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California *Williams ...

History

The current SR 249 was assigned in the early 1970s to a portion of former State Route 33 in New Kent County. The western roughly follow the old Richmond-Williamsburg Stage Road, and it currently is named New Kent Highway. (The continuation east across SR 33 as State Route 632 is still named Old Stage Road.) The Old Stage Road was one of two routes heavily used by both Confederate and Union troops in 1862 during the

Peninsula Campaign The Peninsula campaign (also known as the Peninsular campaign) of the American Civil War was a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March to July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. The oper ...

of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. In the early 1970s, the new

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

was under construction east of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

. Although primarily following the alignment of US 60 in this area, traffic relief for other roadways was also anticipated. Nearby, SR 33 between

Eltham Eltham ( ) is a district of South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three ...

and Quinton in New Kent County had an extraordinarily high accident rate due to heavy weekend traffic to waterfront points in eastern Virginia.

Major intersections

References

External links

{{Attached KML, display=title,inline
Virginia Highways Project: VA 249

249 __NOTOC__ Year 249 ( CCXLIX) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Gavius and Aquilinus (or, less frequently, year 1002 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 24 ...

State Route 249