Virginia State Route 69


State Route 69 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. Known as Lead Mine Road, the state highway runs from SR 636 in Austinville east to U.S. Route 52 in Poplar Camp. SR 69 is the last remnant of a much longer route. At its peak from 1940 to 1945, this route ran from State Route 91 at Lodi east via St. Clair Bottom, Sugar Grove, Cedar Springs, Speedwell, Porters Crossroads, and Austinville to today's SR 69. However, it was never fully continuous; portions from Sugar Grove to Cedar Springs and west of Porters Crossroads to east of Austinville were secondary routes. The full length of this route as it existed and was planned is now part of SR 762, part of SR 660, all of SR 650, part of SR 16, all of SR 614, part of SR 749, part of US 21, part of SR 690, a small piece of SR 642, part of SR 619, part of SR 636, and SR 69.

Route description

SR 69 begins at an intersection with SR 636 just south of the village of Austinville on the New River. The state highway heads east parallel to Poplar Camp Mountain and the Wythe-Carroll county line, which the highway travels atop for a short distance through the hamlet of Bethany. SR 69 expands to a four-lane divided highway through its diamond interchange with Interstate 77 before reaching its eastern terminus at US 52 in Poplar Camp.

History

From Lodi to north of Troutdale, what later became SR 81 was part of State Route 12 until 1933 and U.S. Route 58 until 1940. Other than the State Route 16 concurrency, which was added to the state highway system in 1931 as part of State Route 113, the first new pieces of the route were added in 1928. These sections ran from State Route 26 at Speedwell west to Cedar Springs and from SR 26 north of Speedwell east towards Porters Crossroads for 6.94 miles to a point west of present SR 642. A 3.50-mile piece from State Route 15

Major intersections