Virginia

[Mapmikey]

I hadn't started taking pictures yet while they were around, either.

Perhaps Froggie has some, as he started taking pictures sooner than me...

I have also struck out on Google Images under several different search terms.  I even tried freewayjim youtube videos but it looks like he never drove the Powhite in that area...

Mapmikey

[cpzilliacus]

I would be quite surprised.  from what I know, Virginia has never used button copy.

VA 76 between James River Bridge and VA 146 had some button copy BGSs until relatively recently but being inside the City of Richmond may not have been VDOT-related.

Isn't that part of Va. 76 owned by the RMA (and not VDOT)?

[froggie]

I might but I'd have to look and probably won't be able to do anything with them until I'm back from deployment.  I might also have missed them as I didn't get my digital camera until 2003, had deployments in 2003 and 2005, and departed Virginia right after the 2005 deployment.

[WillWeaverRVA]

I would be quite surprised.  from what I know, Virginia has never used button copy.

VA 76 between James River Bridge and VA 146 had some button copy BGSs until relatively recently but being inside the City of Richmond may not have been VDOT-related.

Isn't that part of Va. 76 owned by the RMA (and not VDOT)?

It is. The RMA contracts out signage on VA 76 between VA 150 and on VA 146 (as well as VA 195).

[dfnva]

Keeping in the old photos theme, I happened on these old pictures around the Landmark Mall area in Alexandria, VA....

Presumably Early 1960s --- VA-236/Duke St and (pre VA-401) Van Dorn St while the original Landmark Center outdoor mall was under construction (the enclosed mall there today was built in 1990). I dig those 4-way signal clusters.
http://novahistory.ctevans.net/archive/files/d8c585c4d551434a0b3cbd6970acbc4e.jpg

Same intersection some years later. Newer, yet still old-school, 12-8-8 signals at the intersection of VA-236/Duke St and Van Dorn St. When was this interchange grade-separated??
http://novahistory.ctevans.net/archive/files/2ac43a186cebed0553851cb20789cc77.jpg

Construction of ramps at I-395 and VA-236/Duke St (Exit 3). Check out the bridge pillars for the VA-236 East to I-395 North ramp!
http://novahistory.ctevans.net/archive/files/66cd748af932c30235298f2b2f30404f.jpg

Off-topic, but if you ever wondered what pre-mall era Landmark Center looked like, there is a treasure trove of pictures on this site. Now Landmark is a dead mall, ironically, planned to be turned back into an outdoor mall.

-Dan

[cpzilliacus]

Richmond Times-Dispatch: State to spend $1 billion for local transportation projects

The Richmond region will receive nearly $1 billion for highway and rail improvements over the next six years under the state's new transportation funding package.

The district will receive $774 million for highway work and more than $148 for major rail projects.

The funding includes $62 million for improvements to the heavily-traveled Interstate 64-Interstate 95 overlap area in Richmond, and nearly $80 million to improve railroad movements in the Richmond-Petersburg area and Washington. There's also money for the Lewistown Road bridge replacement.

[cpzilliacus]

WTOP Radio: I-95 southbound closed for hazmat spill in Va

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. - A crash involving two tractor-trailers -- one hauling hazardous materials -- has closed the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 south of Exit 133/Falmouth in Stafford County.

Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kelly Hannon tells WTOP the closure may last until around 11 a.m. -- possibly later.

Virginia State Police say the closure will be until approximately noon.

[cpzilliacus]

National Journal: Why You Won't Own Your Road - Cash-strapped states such as Virginia are turning to the private sector to help finance large infrastructure projects. But it may just be a way of forcing drivers to pay more in the long run.

RICHMOND, Va.–Dusty Holcombe had to look up his new boss on Google when he learned in 2011 that he would be transferred to a small government office with the sole mission of making deals with the private sector. Holcombe, a 13-year veteran of the Virginia Transportation Department, had never heard of Tony Kinn, the man tapped to head the commonwealth's newly minted Office of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships.

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post editorial: On Virginia's roads, full speed ahead

GOV. ROBERT F. MCDONNELL (R) said it best when he signed his name the other day to Virginia's landmark transportation bill, a $6 billion leviathan that fixed a funding shortfall a quarter century in the making. "The only bad thing from this bill,"  the governor said at a ceremony in Richmond, "is people will be complaining about construction rather than congestion."

Mr. McDonnell campaigned four years ago on the premise that he could tackle the state's drastic transportation funding shortfall without resorting to tax increases. That was a fiction designed to appeal to his Republican base and financially pinched voters reeling from the recession.

[cpzilliacus]

WTOP Radio: State razes homeless man's huge makeshift shelter

Virginia transportation officials worked for hours to remove a huge makeshift shelter a homeless man built and lived in for 9 years.

Bernard Roulston of the Virginia Department of Transportation tells WJLA-TV (http://wj.la/1489rPf) that the structure in Arlington required 10 trucks to haul away on Monday.

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post: Prince William supervisors delay vote on Tri-County Parkway

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors unanimously delayed a vote Tuesday that would have reaffirmed the county's support for a proposed parkway through Manassas Battlefield land that connects Prince William and Loudoun.

The delay is another in a string of setbacks for the project known as the "Tri-County Parkway,"  a road the administration of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) says is vital to the future of one of the fastest-growing regions in the country.

[1995hoo]

The NVTA released its wish list for 2014 based on an expected infusion of $190 million from the new transportation-funding law. (.PDF link)

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post: Traffic management plan could expand use of I-66 shoulders when demand is high

A new system called "active traffic management"  is going to change what drivers see – and maybe what they experience – on Interstate 66, one of the most congested highways in the D.C. region.

On the very worst part of I-66, the part between Route 50 and the Capital Beltway, the X's and arrows regulate access to the shoulders.

These were not built to be regular travel lanes, but when highway departments don't have the space or the money to widen roadways, they look for more ways to use the room they have. The surging demand on I-66 led the Virginia Department of Transportation to open the shoulders to all traffic at peak times.

[cpzilliacus]

The NVTA released its wish list for 2014 based on an expected infusion of $190 million from the new transportation-funding law. (.PDF link)

Good stuff (I think), though still not enough money, given how deep in  the hole that Northern Virginia is. 

Related Washington Post story: Northern Virginia expecting big infusion of road building and transit money

Northern Virginia officials are wrestling with an unfamiliar but welcome challenge: deciding how to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to help commuters in one of the most congested areas of the country.

The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, set up by the General Assembly in 2002 to build regional projects, has been waiting for the money to carry out its primary mission for more than a decade. Because the authority had no funds, state legislators gave it the power to raise revenue. But Virginia's high court ruled that the arrangement was unconstitutional, and the authority had to return the money.

[froggie]

The surging demand on I-66 led the Virginia Department of Transportation to open the shoulders to all traffic at peak times.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this wasn't done strictly because of "surging traffic".  It was done when they converted the inside lane between Fair Oaks and the Beltway to peak-period HOV.

[1995hoo]

The surging demand on I-66 led the Virginia Department of Transportation to open the shoulders to all traffic at peak times.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this wasn't done strictly because of "surging traffic".  It was done when they converted the inside lane between Fair Oaks and the Beltway to peak-period HOV.

That's what I recall as well. In addition, the FHWA authorized the use of shoulder lanes only as a "temporary" measure.

[cpzilliacus]

The surging demand on I-66 led the Virginia Department of Transportation to open the shoulders to all traffic at peak times.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this wasn't done strictly because of "surging traffic".  It was done when they converted the inside lane between Fair Oaks and the Beltway to peak-period HOV.

It's a little more complicated than  that.

In the early 1990's, I-66 outside the Beltway as far west as U.S. 50 at Fair Oaks was three lanes each way for a total of six lanes.  West of Fair Oaks it was TWO lanes each way.

VDOT wanted to extend the I-66 HOV facility west from inside the Beltway, but the budget was extremely limited, and  they wanted to keep 3 general-purpose lanes.  So an "on the cheap" widening was done by converting the shoulders to full-depth and adding some "emergency pull-off" areas between interchanges, with the "Red X" and "Green Arrow" lane during the times that the left lane was HOV-2.  This clunky setup opened in 1995.  At the same time, I-66 between U.S. 50 at Fair Oaks and Va. 234 Business (Sudley Road) was totally reconstructed with the left lane being for HOV use during peak-flow time.  That meant that during off-hours there is a lane drop eastbound right where an immense amount of traffic enters I-66 at all times from U.S. 50.  Not so good.

The HOV lanes with  the part-time shoulder never worked very well, because of violators jumping in and out of the HOV lane, especially eastbound between Va. 243 (Nutley Street) and I-495. 

[cpzilliacus]

WTOP Radio: Worker killed while removing I-81 debris in Va.

Police are investigating the death of a highway maintenance worker who was killed while removing road debris in Montgomery County.

Virginia State Police Sgt. Rob Carpentieri identified the victim as 40-year-old Steven Anthony Cox of Roanoke.

Carpentieri tells media outlets that a tractor- trailer hit Cox as he was removing debris from a northbound lane of Interstate 81. Cox was pronounced dead at the scene.

[ARMOURERERIC]

Any news on the US 460 toll road?

[froggie]

Doesn't begin construction until next year.

[cpzilliacus]

WTOP Radio: Section of I-66 in Fairfax used in project

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) -- A section of Interstate 66 in Fairfax County is being used in a research project on traffic.

Gov. Bob McDonnell launched the project with the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech on Thursday. The four-square-mile area is I-66 between the Capital Beltway and Nutley Street, and on U.S. 50 and U.S. 29.

[cpzilliacus]

Doesn't begin construction until next year.

At which point Gov. Bob McDonnell will be out of office, thanks to Virginia's "one and done (but you can come back)" provisions in law.

Wonder if both, one or none of the two that want to succeed him are as enthused with the U.S. 460 project as he seems to be?

[WillWeaverRVA]

Doesn't begin construction until next year.

At which point Gov. Bob McDonnell will be out of office, thanks to Virginia's "one and done (but you can come back)" provisions in law.

Wonder if both, one or none of the two that want to succeed him are as enthused with the U.S. 460 project as he seems to be?

Wasn't funding for this project part of the transportation bill that was passed a few months ago? The bill had bipartisan support (though I believe Cuccinelli was opposed).

[froggie]

I'm not 100%, but contracts may have been signed already by now.

[mtfallsmikey]

What happened to the Leesburg/Rt. 7 bypass project, adding a third lane WB? Last I heard was the comment period, and the Sycolin Rd. project, looks like it is getting going.