State Route 823 (SR 823), officially known as the Southern Ohio Veterans Memorial Highway and colloquially as the Portsmouth Bypass, is a north–south four-lane divided controlled-access highway in Scioto County, Ohio. The highway, which runs from Sciotodale to Lucasville, reroutes through traffic around the cities of Portsmouth and New Boston to the east. The bypass provides better mobility within the local area for residents and has the potential to increase the economic development of the local area. In September 2013, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) recommended a public–private partnership (P3) to fund and build the highway. Construction began in June 2015. The highway was dedicated on December 13, 2018 with vehicle traffic beginning the next day.

Scioto County is a county along the Ohio River in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Ohio. At the 2020 census, the population was 74,008. Its county seat is Portsmouth. The county was founded on March 24, 1804, from Adams County and is named for a Native American word referring to deer or deer-hunting. Scioto County comprises the Portsmouth, OH Micropolitan Statistical Area. It is at the confluence of the Scioto and Ohio rivers.