When was route 460 built

Blacksburg is one of the largest towns in Southwest Virginia and is home to Virginia Tech, one of the nation's leading technology and research universities. CRC has high-tech companies and a major research center with total jobs.

The Town of Christiansburg, to which the US By-pass connects at its southern terminus, is the county seat of Montgomery County and one of the fastest growing towns in Virginia.

Christiansburg is the region's prime shopping destination. In , the Blacksburg and Christiansburg Chambers of Commerce asked the Virginia Department of Transportation to consider both short- and long-term solutions for traffic congestion along the old Route which runs from the city center west beyond Virginia Tech. This route had become congested and polluted, impeding the efficient circulation of university and commuter traffic within the region.

That same year, Gov. Gerald Baliles' Commission for Transportation in the 21st Century identified a new road to serve as a direct link between Virginia Tech and Roanoke, southwest Virginia's largest city. The purpose of the project was to provide a direct link between Blacksburg and Roanoke, and secondly, to provide a solution to the congestion on Main Street that was causing delays and environmental degradation.

The Congestion was choking the expanding Main Street retailing districts in Blacksburg and Christiansburg. On football weekends, shoppers avoided the city center due to lengthy traffic jams, resulting in lost sales for retailer.

The access improvements produced by the direct interstate connection provided by the bypass expanded regional commuter shed from Montgomery County to the larger New River Valley region. Time savings due to congestion relief enable commuting from Roanoke 45 min. The development most directly attributable to the bypass is the Falling Branch Corporate Park.

This acre business park is located at the southern terminus of the bypass at the I interchange, a ten-minute trip via the bypass from Virginia Tech. About , US was placed on new freeway connecting the Blacksburg and Christianburg bypasses, leaving behind a long US Business.

Roanoke to Lynchburg: US in followed its current route east out of Roanoke, then at Bonsack it veered onto Bonsack Rd, then back to In , US was removed from Bonsack Rd onto its current alignment. This was a replacement of VA The old route became an extended US US then headed out to current US and out of Lynchburg. Old Forest Rd became VA unnumbered today. Maps show a one-way split alignment between 12th and today's US 29 Bus, most like involving Buchanan St and either 14th or 15th.

This too was a replacement of VA and also a duplex with then-US In , US was placed on a new expressway from then-US 29 east to Candler Mtn, then northeast on more new freeway to meet back up with US The old route remained parts of US 29 and US US followed today's to Burkeville except it used the SR loop.

US picked back up current into Dinwiddie County. High St remained part of US This left behind an extended US Business. The tollway would be built south of existing US However, despite spending a substantial amount of money, VDOT was not able to get environmental approvals for this endeavor. In the proposed project was pared down to a new alignment from east of Zuni to teh Suffolk Bypass.

Improvements: The entirety of US was paved upon its designation in July Sussex County's US was widened by In , US was multilaned west a couple miles from Bedford.

In , US was widened from US east a couple miles and also the Bedford segment was widened to about Thaxton. In , US was widened for a mile east out of Pearisburg; the segment east of US was extended halfway to Concord; the Bedford segment was extended around Thaxton and a few more miles west. In , US was multilaned from Deel to about Jamey. In , US was multilaned from Jamey to Raven; a segment west of Bluefield was widened; also Appomattox east past Evergreen was widened.

The Rice to Burkeville segment was shown as 2-lane on official. Error VA shields at I, Exit since at least Multiplexes: US 58 Bus 1.

Portsmouth Blvd remained part of VA while the remainder is city streets. It runs next to the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad. William Mahone built that railroad through the Great Dismal Swamp before the Civil War, with a mile stretch of "tangent" track without a curve. Construction was difficult, but Mahone placed logs at right angles to form a roadbed that did not sink under the weight of the trains. Towns along the route evolved from railroad depots located at the distances where the steam locomotives would need a new supply of water.

The depots were named by William Mahone and his wife Otelia. According to legend, they were influenced by romantic novels written by Sir Walter Scott, including Vicar of Wakefield , and "Disputanta" was chosen when the two could not agree on a name. Route Corridor Improvements Project.

Truck traffic was projected to increase after the Panama Canal was widened, based on the assumption that the Port of Virginia would attract additional container cargo ships to the Norfolk International Terminals, Virginia International Gateway formerly known as the A. The Virginia Department of Transportation VDOT adopted a strategy to attract those container ships by enhancing the capacity to move containers inland via rail and truck through the "Heartland Corridor.

The contract called for the private consortium to build a mile long, four-lane highway parallel to US Blogger James Bacon said: 5. Most of Virginia's transportation mega-projects address a congestion crisis, but U. The state was gambling that a new road would stimulate new buildings, new companies, and new jobs in southeastern Virginia. The economic opportunity for Mobility Partners was different. VDOT guaranteed that its private partner would be repaid.

The potential for increased economic development assumed that faster truck traffic on US would spur construction of more distribution centers, processing the extra cargo to be delivered by container ships and transported on land via trucks. If upgrading US attracted economic development that would have occurred elsewhere in Virginia, then southeastern Virginia would see an economic uptick at the expense of some other rgion.

There would be no net benefits to the entire state. The proposed toll road crossed multiple streams and wetlands on the Coastal Plain. The Corps indicated it was reluctant to approve the loss of acres of wetlands, which the Virginian-Pilot reported as potentially " the greatest destruction of permitted wetlands in Virginia since the creation of the Clean Water Act in The Corps supported an alternative with new construction limited to bypasses around the towns.

The Federal agency notified VDOT that it was at risk, if the state proceeded to spend money on the route not yet approved by the Corps: 7. Any purchase of right-of-way, commitment of resources, or construction activities conducted prior to our permit decision is at your risk and may not be considered in our analysis. The Secretary of Transportation developed a public relations strategy to portray the Corps as trying to destroy southside Virginia along the existing and the governor proclaimed the new US to be his " number 1 transportation priority.

A new governor Terry McAuliffe took office in He appointed a new Secretary of Transportation, replaced some members on the Commonwealth Transportation Board, and directed VDOT to reconsider plans to build the proposed 4-lane toll road. VDOT soon suspended work, citing the lack of the essential wetlands permit from the Corps of Engineers. It made clear that the proposal to build a new highway parallel to the current US the proposal preferred by VDOT under the previous administration of Gov.

Bob McDonnell would cause more environmental damage than any of the alternatives.