A new alignment of SR 168 between 39th Street and Huntington Avenue in Newport News and Pembroke Avenue and King Street in Hampton was built in the early 1940s, and added to the state highway system in 1944; the old route (then on Shell Road) became State Route 143. By 1947, SR 168 was rerouted in Hampton to continue south on Jefferson Avenue, and State Route 351, which had been used for a route in Norfolk that SR 168 absorbed, was assigned to the old alignment to Buckroe Beach, as well as the continuation west to Warwick Boulevard (U.S. Route 60). In 1976, when US 60 eastbound was moved to Huntington Avenue, SR 351 was extended west a block to meet it.