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presents

The Roads and Rails of Mercer County, WV /

CR 36

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Highway	Names	Start	Terminus	Length (km)
CR 36 (current alignment)	Hurricane Ridge Rd.	WV 20, Littlesburg	CR 36/3 north of Mercer County Airport	4
CR 36 (original alignment)	"	WV 20, Littlesburg	CR 25, Edison	7

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Overview

County Route 36 is a single-lane road in southwest Mercer County, traversing Hurricane Ridge north of the Mercer County Airport. Over half of the road's course is unpaved, and portions are virtually impassable.

History

CR 36 was commissioned in 1933, and routed upon pre-existing infrastructure from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In its original configuration, CR 36 extended east of its present terminus to end in Edison at CR 25, the Old Princeton-Bluefield Road. The east leg would progressively be pared back over the next 90 years:

The first of these truncations happened around 1954, when the Mercer County Airport opened. The east leg of CR 36 was commandeered for Airport Road (CR 37, later WV 123), resulting in the highway's endpoint inching 2 kilometres to the west.

By 2004, CR 36 had ceased to connect to WV 123. The newest WVDOT maps place the endpoint even further west, as the former roadbed has been vacated due to construction interference from their "King Coal Highway" white-elephant project.

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Fractional spur roads

Road	Names	Start	Terminus	Length (km)	Notes
36/1	Hurricane Ridge Rd.	CR 36 south of Littlesburg	CR 36/2	2	Original 1930s road with numbers assigned from west to east.
36/2	Hurricane Ridge Rd.	CR 36	dead end (originally through to former CR 25/3)	2	Original 1930s road with numbers assigned from west to east. Stubbed off by construction of Mercer County Airport.
36/3	Hurricane Ridge Rd., Middle Ridge Rd.	CR 36	CR 36/4	4	Original 1930s road with numbers assigned from west to east. Road currently bisected, with middle section impassable and obliterated by construction for WV 108. South stub was originally CR 36/4.
36/4 (old)	Middle Ridge Rd.	CR 36 west of Edison	CR 25/3 near Stony Gap	2	Original 1930s road with numbers assigned from west to east. South leg absorbed into CR 36/3. North leg obliterated by flooding for Kee Reservoir, 1974-76.
36/4	Vista Rd.	CR 36 south of Littlesburg	dead end	insignificant

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