Parham Road is a circumferential highway in

Henrico County Henrico County , officially the County of Henrico, is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 334,389 making it the fifth-most populous county in Virginia. Henrico County is incl ...

in the U.S. state of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. The highway runs from

Virginia State Route 150 State Route 150 (SR 150) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. Known as Chippenham Parkway, the state highway runs from Interstate 95 (I-95) and SR 895 in Bensley north to Parham Road and River Road near Tuckahoe in Henrico Count ...

(SR 150) near Tuckahoe east to

U.S. Route 301 U.S. Route 301 (US 301) is a spur of U.S. Route 1 running through the South Atlantic States. It runs from Biddles Corner, Delaware at Delaware Route 1 to Sarasota, Florida at U.S. Route 41. It passes through the states of Delaware, Mar ...

(US 301) and SR 2 in Chamberlayne. Parham Road serves the northwestern suburbs of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

, including Tuckahoe,

Laurel Laurel may refer to: Plants * Lauraceae, the laurel family * Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel People * Laurel (given name), people with the given name * Laurel (surname), people with the surname * Laurel (mus ...

, and Chamberlayne. The four-lane divided highway intersects all of the major highways that extend northwest and north from the city, including

Interstate 64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchange w ...

(I-64) and

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

. Parham Road is county maintained except for the portion that is State Route 73, a connector between

US 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

and I-95. The Parham Road name was applied to a small portion of the current route by the early 20th century. SR 73 was constructed in the early 1960s. Most of Parham Road from SR 6 to US 1 was constructed as a new four-lane divided highway by Henrico County in the late 1960s; the existing sections were upgraded at the same time. The highway was extended east to its present terminus in the late 1970s. Parham Road was completed south to its present western terminus in 1990 concurrent with the extension of SR 150 across the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...

from the Southside of Richmond to Henrico County.

Route description

Parham Road begins at the northern terminus of SR 150 (Chippenham Parkway) at an intersection with a connector to River Road, which crosses over SR 150 just south of the intersection. SR 150 heads south across the

into Chesterfield County and serves the portion of Richmond south of the river. Parham Road heads north as a four-lane divided highway through the

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

of Tuckahoe, where the highway intersects SR 6 (Patterson Avenue). The highway has a direct northbound ramp to Regency Square shopping mall just south of its intersection with Eastridge Road and Quioccasin Road. North of Three Chop't Road, Parham Road begins to curve to the east and meets I-64 at a six-ramp

partial cloverleaf A partial cloverleaf interchange or parclo is a modification of a cloverleaf interchange. The design has been well received, and has since become one of the most popular freeway-to-arterial interchange designs in North America. It has also bee ...

interchange. In the suburb of Laurel, the highway intersects

US 250 U.S. Route 250 (US 250) is a route of the United States Numbered Highway System, and is a spur of U.S. Route 50. It currently runs for from Richmond, Virginia to Sandusky, Ohio. It passes through the states of Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohi ...

(Broad Street) and Hungary Spring Road, east of which the highway passes the Henrico County Government Center, including the county courthouse. Parham Road continues east, intersects

US 33 U.S. Route 33 (US 33) is a United States Numbered Highway that runs northwest–southeast for from northern Indiana to Richmond, Virginia, passing through Ohio and West Virginia en route. Although most odd-numbered U.S. routes are north–s ...

(Staples Mill Road), and crosses over

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

RF&P Subdivision The RF&P Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation. It runs from Washington, D.C., to Richmond, Virginia, over lines previously owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. ...

rail line a short distance north of

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's Richmond Staples Mill Road station. The highway intersects Woodman Road and passes by the Parham Road campus of

J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College is a public community college in Virginia with three campuses: Parham Road Campus in Henrico County, Downtown Campus in Richmond, and Goochland Campus in Goochland Courthouse, Virginia. Named for Lieutenan ...

. The county highway becomes a state highway, SR 73, at US 1 (Brook Road) at

Yellow Tavern The Battle of Yellow Tavern was fought on May 11, 1864, as part of the Overland Campaign of the American Civil War. Union cavalry under Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan was detached from Grant’s Army of the Potomac to conduct a raid on Richmond, ...

, the site of an 1864 Civil War battle. Parham Road briefly expands to six lanes along its SR 73 section before the state designation ends at an asymmetrical

cloverleaf interchange A cloverleaf interchange is a two-level interchange in which all turns are handled by slip roads. To go left (in right-hand traffic; reverse directions in left-driving regions), vehicles first continue as one road passes over or under the ...

with I-95. Parham Road continues northeast along the northern edge of the suburb of Chamberlayne before curving south to its eastern terminus at US 301 and SR 2 (Chamberlayne Avenue) just west of the

Chickahominy River The Chickahominy is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 river in the eastern portion of the U.S. state of Virginia. The river, which serves as the eastern bo ...

, which forms the Henrico–

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

county line, and those highways' interchange with

I-295 Interstate 295 is the designation for several Interstate Highways in the United States: *Interstate 295 (Delaware–Pennsylvania), a bypass of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania *Interstate 295 (Florida), a beltway around central Jacksonville *Interstate 29 ...

in the adjacent county. Parham Road is maintained by the Henrico County Department of Public Works except for the SR 73 segment, which as a

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 ...

is maintained by the

Virginia Department of Transportation The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is the agency of the state government responsible for transportation in the state of Virginia in the United States. VDOT is headquartered at the Virginia Department of Highways Building in downtown ...

. Parham Road is a part of the main National Highway System from its western terminus to I-95.

History

Parham Road is named for Junius S. Parham, a

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

resident whose only connection to Henrico County is his acquisition of land known as the Parham tract through his marriage to Mary E. Smith in the mid-19th century. Between 1860 and 1879, Parham gradually sold off sections of this track along the eastern side of what was then known as New County Road, which extended from Three Chopt Road to Broad Street Road and was named for Parham by 1900. By 1958, Parham Road covered the same length as it had since 1900, although a portion of Ridge Road from south of SR 6 to south of Quioccasin Road followed the highway's current course. That same year, the

Commonwealth Transportation Board The Commonwealth Transportation Board, formerly the State Highway and Transportation Board, regulates and funds transportation in Virginia. It oversees the Virginia Department of Transportation. Membership The Board consists of seventeen members: * ...

deemed it necessary for there to be a connecting road in the primary highway system between US 1 and the proposed I-95; the proposed connector was designated SR 73. The Board approved funding for the highway, then named the Dover Street Connection, in 1959. SR 73 was completed in 1962 with a

trumpet interchange In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, using ...

at I-95. By 1964, Henrico County was planning a circumferential highway in the western part of the county, and county officials requested state aid for the new Parham Road circumferential. Construction of the new Parham Road began between 1965 and 1967 and was completed in 1968. The work consisted of new construction from just south of Quioccasin Road to the intersection of Three Chopt Road and existing Parham Road and from just west of US 250 to the intersection of US 1 and SR 73. Existing Parham Road was expanded from Three Chopt Road to US 250; in addition, Ridge Road was expanded from the present Ridge Road–Parham Road intersection south of SR 6 to Quioccasin Road. Parham Road was extended south as a two-lane road from Ridge Road to River Road by 1971. On the opposite end of the highway, the highway was extended east from I-95 to US 301 and SR 2 and the I-95 interchange was expanded to a full cloverleaf in 1978. The Chippenham–Parham Connector was proposed as early as 1972. Its course from Forest Hill Avenue south of the James River to Parham Road at Ridge Road was approved in 1984; the section from River Road to the southern end of the four-lane portion of Parham Road would be constructed by Henrico County. The cross-James portion of SR 150 and the four-lane connecting portion of Parham Road were completed in 1990.

Major intersections

References

{{reflist, 30em, refs= {{cite web, url=http://www.virginiadot.org/info/2014_traffic_data_by_jurisdiction.asp, title=2014 Traffic Data, publisher=Virginia Department of Transportation, year=2014, accessdate=2015-08-24
Henrico County
(PDF) {{google maps, url=https://www.google.com/maps/dir/37.5727161,-77.5756621/37.6404179,-77.4243281/@37.5844467,-77.5748242,18605m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m3!4m2!3e0!5i1, title=Parham Road, accessdate=2015-08-24 {{cite web, url=http://henrico.us/works/faqs/, title=FAQs – County of Henrico, publisher=Henrico County, Virginia, accessdate=2015-08-24 {{cite news, author=Garry Kranz, newspaper=Henrico Monthly, url=http://www.henricomonthly.com/news/road-warriors, title=Road Warriors, date=November 2, 2013, publisher=Local News, LLC, accessdate=2015-08-28 {{cite map, publisher=Federal Highway Administration, title=National Highway System: Richmond, VA, url=http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/national_highway_system/nhs_maps/virginia/richmond_va.pdf, date=October 1, 2012, section=, format=PDF, accessdate=2015-08-24 {{cite web, url=http://henrico.us/about-henrico/history/government/names-places-in-henrico/#PARHAM%20ROAD, title=Names & Places in Henrico, publisher=Henrico County, Virginia, accessdate=2015-08-28 {{cite map, publisher=Virginia Department of Highways, title=Map of Henrico County Showing Primary and Secondary Highways, date=January 1, 1958, location=Richmond, VA {{cite map, publisher=United States Geological Survey, title=Bon Air, VA quadrangle, edition=1965, scale=1:24,000, series=7 1/2 Minute Series (Topographic) {{CTB minutes, 08-1958-01, pages=13–14 {{CTB minutes, 03-1959-02, page=31 {{CTB minutes, 07-1962-02, page=16 {{NBI, structurenumber=000000000009830, datakey=662555, accessdate=2015-08-28 {{cite map, publisher=United States Geological Survey, title=Yellow Tavern, VA quadrangle, edition=1965, scale=1:24,000, series=7 1/2 Minute Series (Topographic) {{CTB minutes, 05-1964-02, page=64 {{cite map, publisher=United States Geological Survey, title=Bon Air, VA quadrangle, edition=1969, scale=1:24,000, series=7 1/2 Minute Series (Topographic) {{NBI, structurenumber=000000000009634, datakey=662443, accessdate=2015-08-28 {{cite map, publisher=Virginia Department of Highways, title=Virginia Official State Highway Map, inset=Richmond, edition=1968, year=1968, location=Richmond, VA {{cite map, publisher=United States Geological Survey, title=Glen Allen, VA quadrangle, edition=1969, scale=1:24,000, series=7 1/2 Minute Series (Topographic) {{cite map, publisher=United States Geological Survey, title=Yellow Tavern, VA quadrangle, edition=1969, scale=1:24,000, series=7 1/2 Minute Series (Topographic) {{cite map, publisher=Virginia Department of Highways, title=Virginia Official State Highway Map, inset=Richmond, edition=1971, year=1971, location=Richmond, VA {{cite map, publisher=Virginia Department of Highways, title=Virginia Official State Highway Map, inset=Richmond, edition=1978, year=1978, location=Richmond, VA {{NBI, structurenumber=000000000009828, datakey=662554, accessdate=2015-08-28 {{cite map, publisher=United States Geological Survey, title=Yellow Tavern, VA quadrangle, edition=1982, scale=1:24,000, series=7 1/2 Minute Series (Topographic) {{CTB minutes, 06-1984-01, pages=46–50 {{cite map, publisher=Virginia Department of Transportation, title=Virginia Official State Highway Map, inset=Richmond, edition=1990, year=1990, location=Richmond, VA {{NBI, structurenumber=000000000009636, datakey=672811, accessdate=2015-08-28

External links

Parham Road