US 60 in Virginia

According to citypopulationreview.com, US 60 is a US Highway in the US state of Virginia. The road forms an east-west route through the center of the state, from the West Virginia border through Lexington and Richmond to the Hampton Roads conurbation, where the road ends at Virginia Beach. US 60 is a more direct route between Lexington and Richmond than the I-64 detour. The road is 502 kilometers long.

Travel directions

Western Virginia

US 60 east of Amherst.

West of Allegheny, US 60 in West Virginia enters the state of Virginia at about 770 meters from the capital Charleston, double with Interstate 64. One soon reaches the town of Covington, where US 60 briefly follows its own route and crosses US 220. The area through which the road passes is mountainous and densely forested. As far as Lexington, the road is mostly double-numbered with I-64, after which it turns off and continues through Lexington. One crosses US 11 and Interstate 81 here. US 60 then leaves the route of I-64 and continues through Buena Vista, where US 501from Lynchburg ends. Then one has to go over the high Blue Ridge, over which the Blue Ridge Parkway runs. The US 60 rises here to about 700 meters. Then the road descends and the area still consists of low hills. At Amherst you cross the US 29. A little further on, it crosses the James River, after which the road continues east with one lane in each direction. In the hamlet of Sprouses Corner you cross the US 15.

Richmond

Still further east you pass through a flatter and wooded area. US 522 terminates in Powhatan. It does not take long before you reach the Richmond conurbation, which has more than a million inhabitants. First, it crosses State Route 288, Richmond’s western bypass. The road then continues through the wooded suburbs and intersects State Route 76, a toll road from the southwestern suburbs to downtown Richmond. It then crosses State Route 150, the Chippenham Parkway and forms a second bypass closer to downtown. The road then crosses the James River and briefly passes through downtown Richmond, where it crosses Interstate 95. The road then continues through the eastern suburbs, past Richmond International Airport. Then you cross the Interstate 295, then you leave the agglomeration.

Eastern Virginia

East of Richmond, US 60 forms a 2×2 divided highway that runs parallel to Interstate 64 and curves slowly southeast over a narrowing peninsula between the James and York Rivers estuaries. You then pass through Williamsburg, a historic town and then you reach the conurbation around the city of Norfolk, also called the Hampton Roads after the meeting of several bays. The road here runs through the town of Newport News, which has a population of 180,000. You pass the airport and cross the US 17. The road then continues along the docks through Newport News industrial area and then heads northeast towards Hampton and intersects Interstate 664, the western river crossing over the Hampton Roads. The road then enters Hampton, a city of approximately 150,000 inhabitants. The road continues through downtown and then merges with I-64 to connect across the Hampton Roads via a bridge and tunnel.

In Norfolk, US 60 almost immediately exits and runs east along Chesapeake Bay on Ocean View Avenue. The road passes Norfolk International Airport and then crosses US 13. Then you come to Virginia Beach, a prosperous city of more than 450,000 inhabitants, also the largest city in the metropolitan area. Parts of the city are built on small bays with numerous side arms on which wooded residential areas have been built. The road then heads south along Atlantic Avenue, along the Atlantic Ocean, to its end, where it intersects with US 58, which also ends here.

History

US 60 was one of the original US Highways of 1926. Its terminus was Newport News at the time. In 1929, the route was extended to Virginia Beach, after which the terminus was changed at local street level.

Routing

US 60 was originally an important connection, but this importance was greatly reduced in the 1960s and 1970s when Interstate 64 was built in the same corridor. One difference, however, is that US 60 runs directly from Lexington to Richmond, and I-64 detours through Charlottesville. However, US 60 has kept a secondary character in central Virginia due to the lack of regional towns on its route. Most of US 60 has therefore remained a single carriageway on this corridor.

The original route of US 60 differs significantly from the present-day route in central Virginia. US 60 curved south between Lexington and Richmond, passing through Lynchburg and Farmville. In 1933, a more direct route was chosen via Buena Vista and Amherst. The old route then became part of US 501, US 460 and US 360.

When US 60 was extended from Newport News to Virginia Beach, the route used a ferry service between Newport News and where the Norfolk Naval Base is now. US 60 then followed Virginia Beach Boulevard to the coast (current US 58). Within a year, however, the route was changed to Ocean View Avenue, with US 60 no longer passing through the center of Norfolk. Since 1957, US 60 has crossed the water via the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.

When I-64 was completed in the border area with West Virginia, US 60 was routed over it. The original route was through Crows, on what is now State Route 311 and State Route 159. Between Covington and Lexington, US 60 was also routed over I-64, the old route being a series of state routes a short distance from I-64.

Upgrades

Relatively few upgrades have been made to US 60 outside the larger cities. No long stretches have been widened to 2×2 lanes, with the exception of the section from Richmond to Newport News, via the colonial town of Williamsburg. The first section to be widened to 2×2 lanes was the bridge over the James River in Richmond, which was widened around 1937. In the 1940s-50s many sections in Richmond, Newport News and Norfolk were widened to 4 lanes.

The first part that was outside a large city and was widened to 4 lanes was between Lexington and Buena Vista, half of this was already widened in 1959, the second half followed in 1968, so that a 10 kilometer long route with 2×2 lanes was created between the two towns. In the period 1970-1971, a 25-kilometer stretch between Powhatan and the western suburbs of Richmond was widened to 2×2 lanes. In the late 1970s to around 1980, US 60 between Richmond and Williamsburg was widened to 2×2 lanes.