Virginia State Route 712 (Brunswick County)

Infobox road
state=VA
type=secondary
route=712
alternate_name=Old Stage Road
length_mi=12.62
length_ref=PDFlink| [http://www.virginiadot.org/info/resources/AADT_012_Brunswick_2005.pdf 2005 Virginia Department of Transportation Jurisdiction Report - Daily Traffic Volume Estimates - Brunswick County] |173 KiB ]
length_round=2
established=1949
direction_a=South
direction_b=North
starting_terminus=
junction=
ending_terminus=

State Route 712 is a secondary state highway in Brunswick County, Virginia, United States. It is an old alignment of the road that is now U.S. Route 1, and is still officially part of the Jefferson Davis Highway.PDFlink| [http://www.virginiadot.org/info/resources/route-index-07012003.pdf Virginia Route Index] |239 KiB , revised July 1, 2003] SR 712 runs from State Route 606, just south of U.S. Route 58 at Edgerton, north to U.S. Route 1 at the Nottoway River.

State Route 1, now U.S. Route 1, was initially defined to run via Warfield, about halfway between Alberta and the Nottoway River. The State Highway Commission recommended in late 1921 that the General Assembly redefine it to run via Smoky Ordinary (between the Nottoway River and Edgerton), "as this is a more direct route and combines with Route 12 for a distance of about four [additional] miles". [CTB minutes|12-1921-01, page 47] This change was soon made, putting SR 1 along current SR 712; in the 1923 renumbering, SR 1 became State Route 31.

In 1925, SR 31 was moved to the direct routing northeast from South Hill, [CTB minutes|05-1925-01, page 12] replacing State Route 314, as the federal Bureau of Public Roads had refused to add the longer Edgerton alignment to the primary federal aid system. [CTB minutes|12-1923-01, page 20] The Edgerton-Nottoway River route became State Route 122 (a spur of State Route 12) then, [CTB minutes|01-1927-01, page 14] State Route 402 in the 1928 renumbering, and State Route 140 in the 1933 renumbering. (SR 140 also included a 0.85-mile (1.37 km) piece of State Route 670, from US 58 west of Edgerton south to State Route 606, until 1942; [CTB minutes|09-1942-01, page 16] this had been State Route 438 before 1933.) SR 140 was transferred to the secondary system, becoming State Route 712, in 1949, as it showed "no indication of ever becoming of primary importance" with an annual average daily traffic count of 223 vehicles per day in 1948. [CTB minutes|04-1949-01, page 5] (SR 712 now has an AADT of 1700 in its center section. )

References