New Kent County Road Orders 1684-1758

About the report:

The road history projects undertaken by the Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research (formerly the Virginia Transportation Research Council) establish the feasibility of studies of early road networks and their use in the environmental review process.  These projects, by gathering and publishing the early road orders of the vast parent counties, also lay the foundation for additional research by local groups over a broad area of Virginia.

This volume marks the 27th entry in the Historic Roads of Virginia series, first initiated by the Virginia Highway & Transportation Research Council (subsequently the Virginia Transportation Research Council, and now the Virginia Center for Innovation and Research) in 1973.  New Kent County Road Orders 1684-1758 expands the coverage of early central Tidewater transportation records begun in the previously published New Kent County and Hanover County Road Orders 1706-1743.

This project covers the surviving transportation records from the end of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century for a significant parent county of Virginia’s central Tidewater region.  During the late 17th century and early 18th century, the area covered in this volume included much of modern New Kent County, portions of King William County and Hanover County, and a small portion of James City County.  This information will eliminate the need for further research into the early New Kent County road order records.  If questions arise about early roads once a VDOT road improvement project is already under way (or nearly under way), primary historical research of this nature can take 6 to 12 months to complete.  Therefore, this study can be a source of potentially significant cost savings for VDOT, including the avoided costs of project delays and avoided consultant costs for cultural resource studies should questions arise.

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