State Route 74 (SR 74) 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 for most of its length as Kentucky Avenue, the state highway runs from
U.S. Route 23 Business (US 23 Business) and
US 58 Alternate Business in
Norton Norton may refer to:
Places
Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada
*Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan
*Norton Parish, New Brunswick
**Norton, New Brunswick, a ...
east to
US 58 Alternate
U.S. Route 58 Alternate (US 58 Alt.) is a alternate route to US 58 in western Virginia. The route is a northern bypass to US 58 which stays closer to the Tennessee border and serves Gate City and Bristol.
Route description Jonesville to Norton ...
near Norton. SR 74 is the old alignment of US 58 Alternate in Norton. The highway was designated in 1958 from its western terminus to Kentucky Avenue and extended east in 1988.
Route description
SR 74 begins at US 23 Bus. and US 58 Alt. Bus. (Park Avenue) at the eastern end of downtown Norton. The state highway heads southeast on Coeburn Avenue, which has oblique, at-grade crossings with a pair of rail lines. Just east of the second crossing, SR 74 turns onto Kentucky Avenue. The state highway passes under the freeway carrying
US 23
}
U.S. Route 23 or U.S. Highway 23 (US 23) is a major north–south U.S. Highway between Jacksonville, Florida, and Mackinaw City, Michigan. It is an original 1926 route which originally reached only as far south as Portsmouth, Ohio, and has since ...
and US 58 Alternate. The highway has another at-grade rail intersection in the eastern portion of the city of Norton. Shortly after leaving the city limits, SR 74 curves north to pass under one of the rail lines and over the
Guest River
The Guest River is a short tributary of the Clinch River in Southwest Virginia, southwestern Virginia in the United States. It is part of the drainage basin, watershed of the Mississippi River by way of the Clinch, Tennessee River, Tennessee and ...
and reaches its eastern terminus at US 58 Alternate (Norton Coeburn Road) in the hamlet of Ramsey in
Wise County. The roadway continues north as SR 681 (Bear Creek Road).
History
SR 74 was initially part of
SR 11, defined in 1918. It became part of
SR 64 in 1933,
SR 70 in 1940, and US 58 Alt. in the early 1950s. The first piece of SR 74 was designated in 1958 along Coeburn Road west of Kentucky Avenue, though it did not exist until the new US 58 Alternate along 11th Street and Kentucky Avenue was completed in 1960. The new US 58 Alternate (now partly US 23 Bus. and
SR 283) in eastern Norton was completed in 1988, and SR 74 was extended east over the old road.
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Major intersections
References
External links
{{Attached KML, display=title,inline
Virginia Highways Project: VA 74
074
State Route 074
State Route 074
U.S. Route 58