However, construction eventually started, and the whole thing was complete by 1989. The freeway was planned in the 1960s as the Beltline Expressway, part of a planned 10-mile toll system including the Powhite Parkway and Downtown Expressway. Dozens of states' requests for new routes included Richmond's Beltline Expressway. The Powhite and Downtown were built as toll roads. Kirby, J. P. 5.
State begins work to relocate freeway stretch.
Brown Daily Herald , March 17, 1999. Move to 'burbs stresses state's old highways. Providence Journal-Bulletin, July 25, 1999. Post to misc.transport.road, Sept. 19, 2000. Unnamed sources are either maps or personal experience.