page_title: Richmond–Petersburg Turnpike
section_title: Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike Authority
hierarchical_section_title: Richmond–Petersburg Turnpike / History / Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike Authority
caption_attribution_description: Title: Construction of Interstate 95, downtown Richmond Creator: Adolph B. Rice Studio Date: March 28, 1958 Identifier: Rice Collection 1832B Format: 1 negative, safety film, 4 x 5 in. Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication. Repository: Library of Virginia, Prints and Photographs, 800 E. Broad St., Richmond, VA, 23219, USA, digitool1.lva.lib.va.us:8881/R
context_page_description: The Richmond–Petersburg Turnpike was a toll road located in the Richmond-Petersburg region of central Virginia, United States.
  After World War II, major traffic congestion occurred in the area around Richmond and Petersburg along U.S. Route 1 and U.S. Route 301. This was particularly true where these two major routes shared the same roadway for much of the distance between the two cities, as well as bridges across the James River and Appomattox River.
  To help alleviate the problems, in 1955 the Virginia General Assembly created a political subdivision, the Richmond Petersburg Turnpike Authority. The authority was administered by a board of directors. Its members were appointed by the local governing bodies of the jurisdictions through which the turnpike passed, one member from each locality. It was given the mission to sell toll revenue bonds to build and operate a new toll highway parallel to the existing US 1 and US 301 between Henrico County just north of Richmond and Dinwiddie County just south of Petersburg, with new bridges over the two major rivers.
context_section_description: After World War II, the busy north–south corridor in central Virginia shared by US 1 and US 301 and the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway through the cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights and Petersburg and along the Jefferson Davis Highway between the cities was heavily developed commercially. With only four traffic lanes and long stretches of undivided roadway, it became a major area of traffic congestion, as well as the site of occasional spectacular and deadly head-on collisions.
  In 1955, prior to the creation of the U.S. Interstate Highway System, the Virginia General Assembly created the Richmond–Petersburg Turnpike Authority as an independent state agency to administer (design, finance, acquire right-of-way, construct, operate, collect tolls, and maintain) the new Turnpike of the same name. The new toll road was planned with only 15 exits, and most of these were well away from the highly developed commercial areas along parallel US 1 and US 301.
  Funded with proceeds from toll revenue bonds sold by the Authority, the 34.7-mile (55.8 km)-long road cost $76.7 million to build, including new bridges over the James River in Richmond and the Appomattox River between Colonial Heights and Petersburg. It featured six lanes from the northern entrance to just south of the new James River Bridge in Richmond, and four lanes from that point south. At Petersburg, the new Turnpike split into two branches, one leading to US 301 south towards Emporia and Weldon, North Carolina, and the other to US 1 south, which led to South Hill and Raleigh, North Carolina.
  The new expressway opened on July 1, 1958, and in August, the State Highway Commission designated it as part of Interstate 95. A piece near Petersburg was designated Interstate 85, and the turnpike became a grandfathered part of the Interstate Highway System even though no federal aid was used to build it. The new roadway achieved the intended diversion of long distance traffic. As earlier feared, hotels, motels, tourist homes and cabins, and restaurants along the bypassed highways suffered tremendous loss of business, and many failed. However, due to the relatively high rate of tolls on the Turnpike, the blow was softened by a continually increasing traffic flow and patronage of motorists wanting to avoid the tolls, who continued to use the old roads. This practice of avoiding roads and bridges with tolls is known as "shunpiking".
caption: The Richmond-Petersburg turnpike under construction, as it passes through Jackson Ward.
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