 These, with more lanes and higher speed limits, in combination with Warwick Boulevard, form the major east–west highways through modern-day Newport News.The road was named for the former Warwick County, Virginia, one of the original eight shires of Virginia which consolidated with the City of Newport News in 1958 and assumed the better-known name.Warwick County was named in 1634 for Robert Rich (1587–1658), second Earl of Warwick and a prominent member of the Virginia Company of London, the proprietary venture which founded Jamestown in 1607.