State Route 253 (SR 253) is a primary
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 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 ...
. Known as Port Republic Road, the state highway runs from
U.S. Route 11 (US 11) in
Harrisonburg east to
US 340 near
Port Republic. SR 253 is a northwest–southeast highway that connects Harrisonburg with
Cross Keys and Port Republic in southeastern
Rockingham County. The state highway also provides access to portions of
James Madison University
James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...
on either side of
Interstate 81
Interstate 81 (I-81) is a north–south (physically northeast–southwest) Interstate Highway in the eastern part of the United States. Its southern terminus is at I-40 in Dandridge, Tennessee; its northern terminus is on Wellesley Island ...
(I-81). SR 253 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 ...
except for the portion in the
independent city
An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province).
Historical precursors
In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...
of Harrisonburg, which is municipally maintained.
A small portion of Port Republic Road through Port Republic was included in the state highway system by the late 1920s as part of the highway between
Waynesboro and
Elkton. This section was paved in the early 1930s and carried three different route numbers until it was transferred to the secondary system in the early 1940s. Port Republic Road was placed on its modern alignment through Port Republic in the mid-1950s, by which time almost all of the highway was paved. SR 659, which was assigned to Port Republic Road from Harrisonburg to near Cross Keys, was extended southeast through Port Republic by the mid-1970s. Port Republic Road was expanded to four lanes within Harrisonburg in the mid-1990s and mid-2000s and along a short stretch south from the city limits in the early 2010s. SR 659 was brought into the primary highway system as SR 253 in 2005.
Route description
SR 253 begins at an intersection with US 11 (Main Street) south of downtown Harrisonburg and southwest of the campus of James Madison University. The highway heads southeast as a four-lane undivided highway that intersects Bluestone Drive, which heads north to the campus and
Bridgeforth Stadium
Bridgeforth Stadium is a football stadium located on the campus of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The stadium is home to the James Madison Dukes football team. The playing surface is named Zane Showker Field.
With a seati ...
, just before meeting I-81 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 ...
. SR 253's next intersection is with Forest Hill Road, which leads to the
James Madison University Convocation Center
The JMU Convocation Center is a 6,426-seat multi-purpose arena in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The arena opened in 1982, and was home to the James Madison Dukes men's basketball and James Madison Dukes women's basketball teams through the 2019–20 se ...
, the
Edith J. Carrier Arboretum The Edith J. Carrier Arboretum is an arboretum and botanical garden on the James Madison University campus, located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States in the Shenandoah Valley. Groundbreaking for the arboretum took place April, 1985, under ...
, and the rest of the portion of James Madison University east of I-81. The highway gains a
center left-turn lane
A reversible lane (British English: tidal flow) is a lane in which traffic may travel in either direction, depending on certain conditions. Typically, it is meant to improve traffic flow during rush hours, by having overhead traffic lights and li ...
at Devon Lane and passes several university athletic fields at Neff Avenue. SR 253's center left-turn lane ends and the road expands to a four-lane
divided highway
A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...
at the boundary between the independent city of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. The highway intersects
SR 280 (Stone Spring Road) next to Rockingham Memorial Hospital.
South of SR 704 (Boyer Road), SR 253 drops to two lanes and the surroundings transition from suburban to rural. The highway intersects
SR 276 (Cross Keys Road) a short distance northeast of the village of
Cross Keys and crosses Mill Creek east of the village. SR 253 curves southwest and crosses the
North River into the village of Port Republic, then curves back southeast and exits the village by crossing the
South River just west of the confluence of the two rivers to form the
South Fork Shenandoah River
The Shenandoah River is the principal tributary of the Potomac River, long with two forks approximately long each,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 in t ...
. SR 253 has an intersection with the northern end of SR 825 (South River Road) and a level crossing of
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...
's
Roanoke District before reaching its eastern terminus at US 340 (East Side Highway); Port Republic Road continues as SR 659.
History
The first portion of Port Republic Road to become a part of the state highway system was from Main Street (now SR 605) in Port Republic north to Pineville Road (now SR 672). That highway, SR 809, ran from Greenville through Waynesboro and Grottoes to SR 17 (now
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 ...
) at Montevideo between Harrisonburg and Elkton by 1928.
In 1930, the state highway was relocated to the east side of the South River from Grottoes to Port Republic along South River Road (now SR 825).
SR 809 was not paved along Port Republic Road until 1932.
As of 1932, the remainder of Port Republic Road followed highways maintained by the city of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. These included county route (CR) 31 from Harrisonburg through the junction with CR 12 (now SR 276) near Cross Keys to Goods Mill Road (now SR 708), on which CR 31 continued. Port Republic Road continued along CR 214 to Battlefield Road (then CR 7, now SR 679). The road continued along CR 7 to the junction with SR 809. CR 31 was paved from Harrisonburg to about the modern city limits of Harrisonburg, and CR 7 was paved from SR 809 to the Battlefield Road split.
By July 1933, after the passage of the
Byrd Road Act
The Byrd Road Act was an Act of Assembly passed in February 1932 by the Virginia General Assembly. Named for former Governor Harry F. Byrd, the legislation was originally presented as measure to relieve the financial pressures of the Great Depressi ...
that established Virginia's secondary highway system and transferred maintenance responsibility for local highways from the county to the state, all of Port Republic Road's route numbers changed.
SR 807 became part of SR 340, which became SR 12 in 1936.
After the East Side Highway, the modern route of US 340, was completed from Grottoes to Elkton in 1941, SR 12 was moved to the new highway by 1944; the old highway became SR 865.
SR 865's modern bridges across the South River and North River and their approaches were constructed in 1955 and 1956.
These bridges were upstream from the old bridges.
SR 865's bridge across Mill Creek and its approaches were constructed in 1956 and 1957.
By 1958, Port Republic Road consisted of SR 659 from Harrisonburg to Goods Mill Road, SR 675 south from there to Battlefield Road, SR 679 from there to SR 865 (Pineville Road), SR 865 through Port Republic, and SR 629 from SR 865 just south of the South River to beyond US 340 (East Side Highway). The county highways were all paved except for SR 675, which was gravel.
Port Republic Road's interchange with I-81 was completed when the Interstate was completed between interchanges with US 11 on either side of Harrisonburg in 1961.
By 1974, SR 659 was extended southeast so that all of Port Republic Road was one route number.
Port Republic Road was relocated at its intersection with SR 680 (Oak Ridge Road) in 1971.
The intersection had formerly been a T intersection that required a turn to remain on Port Republic Road.
SR 659 was reconstructed from SR 689 (Spaders Church Road) to just south of I-81 by 1978.
The highway's intersections with SR 708 and SR 679 were revised and SR 659 was reconstructed between them by 1987.
Port Republic Road was widened by the city of Harrisonburg to four lanes from US 11 to I-81 in 1994, from I-81 to Neff Avenue in 2004, and from Neff Avenue to the city limit by 2006.
Port Republic Road in the city of Harrisonburg and SR 659 in Rockingham County from the city to US 340 were transferred from the secondary system to the primary highway system as SR 253 by a resolution passed by 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:
* ...
on March 17, 2005.
The transfer was supported in part by the planned relocation of Rockingham Memorial Hospital from north of the James Madison University campus in the city to southeast of the city in Rockingham County, a process that began in 2004 and was completed when the hospital opened in 2010.
SR 253 was expanded to a four-lane divided highway from SR 704 (Boyers Road) north to the city limit, thus connecting with the four-lane highway built by the city, starting in early 2010. The expansion project was completed in early 2012, although the new divided highway opened to traffic in June 2011.
The project included construction of a small piece of
SR 280— the Southeast Connector, which connects
SR 42, US 11, SR 253, and US 33 south of Harrisonburg
—at its intersection with SR 253 next to Rockingham Memorial Hospital.
Major intersections
References
External links
{{AttachedKML, display=title,inline
Virginia Highways Project: VA 253
253
State Route 253
State Route 253