State Route 661 (SR 661) is a long north–south
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 central portion of the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
of
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. The southern terminus of SR 661 is at a
diamond interchange
A diamond interchange is a common type of road junction, used where a controlled-access highway crosses a minor road.
Design
The freeway itself is grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge. Approaching the ...
with
SR 16 and
SR 37 just south of
Granville. SR 661 has its northern terminus at a signalized T-intersection with
SR 13 in the southern end of
Mount Vernon.
Route description
SR 661 travels through northern
Licking County
Licking County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. At the 2020 census, the population was 178,519. Its county seat is Newark. The county was formed on January 30, 1808, from portions of Fairfield County.
It is ...
and southern
Knox County. No portion of this state route is included within the
National Highway System (NHS). The NHS is a network of highways identified as being most important for the economy, mobility and defense of the nation.
History
The SR 661 designation was created in 1937. It was originally routed along its current path between Granville, at the eastern intersection with Broadway Avenue, the former routing of SR 16, and the southern end of Mount Vernon. However, instead of turning east onto Blackjack Road, as it does now, it continued north along Granville Road up to where it meets SR 13 just south of downtown Mount Vernon. That point marked the original northern terminus of SR 661.
By 1964, a new freeway opened to the south of Granville. SR 16 was re-routed off of Broadway Avenue onto the by-pass. Consequently, SR 661 was extended a short distance to the south by following Broadway Avenue west to Main Street, and then heading south along the former routing of SR 37 to the interchange with the SR 16/SR 37 freeway that currently marks the southern terminus of SR 661.
On the northern end, SR 661 was re-routed off of Granville Road onto Blackjack Road heading east to a new terminus at SR 13 in the southern end of Mount Vernon in 1983.
Major intersections
References
{{Reflist
661
Year 661 ( DCLXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 661 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the ...
661
Year 661 ( DCLXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 661 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the ...
661
Year 661 ( DCLXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 661 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the ...