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 ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

in the U.S. state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Known as New Kent Highway, the state highway runs from Interstate 64 (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 Pacific Avenue, in the ...

(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 New Kent County is a county in the eastern part the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 22,945. Its county seat is New Kent. New Kent County is included in the Greater Richmond Region. History Ne ...

, providing access to the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

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 interchange designs in North America. It has also bee ...

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 though this short segment of road is also signed as SR 249. SR 249 passes through the interchange as a four-lane

divided highway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

but reduces to a two-lane undivided road as it curves east. The state highway passes through the hamlet of

Quinton Quinton is a place name, a surname or a masculine given name. The place name originates from Old English ''cwen'' "queen" or ''cwene'' "woman" and ''tun'' "farmstead, estate". The English surname and given name may originate from the English plac ...

and meets the northern end of SR 106 (Emmaus Church Road) at a

roundabout A roundabout is a type 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 junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...

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 describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

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 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

. 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 of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. In the early 1970s, the new I-64 was under construction east of

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

. 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 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 wards of Elt ...

and

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 (link will display the full calendar) 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 ...

State Route 249