State Route 146 was an alternate route for
SR 5 traffic from within
Richmond city limits south to
Oakland. Its initial alignment, created in 1930 as
State Route 430, roughly followed the old
Richmond and Osborne's Turnpike (now the SR 5 corridor), while
SR 41 (which became SR 5 in 1933) used the present New Osborne Turnpike. However, the turnpike's crossing of the
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway's
Peninsula Subdivision on 37th Street had been closed to build
Fulton Yard, so SR 430 jogged west on Bickerstaff Road and north to the city limits where SR 5 now crosses, at what was then 35th Street. Inside Richmond, the alignment was defined in 1932 to turn east on Louisiana Street and end at SR 41, which was then on Fulton Street. SR 430 became SR 146 in the
1933 renumbering. At the same time, SR 5 and SR 146 switched alignments south of Louisiana Street, with SR 5 replacing SR 146 on Old Osborne Turnpike (the jog at Bickerstaff Road had been removed in the early 1940s) and SR 146 moving to New Osborne Turnpike, Newton Road, Hatcher Street, Williamsburg Road, and Fulton Street, from which it turned west on Louisiana Street to end at 35th Street (still SR 5). At some point, SR 146 was removed from Fulton Street, following Williamsburg Road directly to Louisiana Street. In 1966, the road outside Richmond was turned over to
Henrico County for maintenance, and inside Richmond it became ordinary city streets, at the same time as current
SR 197 was created. ==SR 148==