Virginia

[Rothman]

I do think it's appropriate for primary routes to be the greater priority (recognizing a serious hazard would warrant an exception).

I was about to say that there's a reason why secondary routes are truly "secondary."

Still, it's really not that black-and-white.  In my own opinion, NYSDOT went through a phase where it focused on Interstates at the expense of everything else (over five years ago).  Timing was unfortunate, because of what MAP-21 did to the federal fund sources, focusing more on the NHS.  So, the non-Interstates suffered, the federal fund mix changed and that's what we call a bind.  Luckily, FHWA has allowed flexibility with the states in terms of transferring funding between NHPP and STP-Flex to smooth the transition over.

Anyway, my point is that priorities can be more fluid and subjective than the on-the-surface-strict definitions of functional class or system may imply.

[D-Dey65]

I forgot whether I've brought this up before, but this image looks like it might be somewhere along I-81.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Runaway_truck_ramp,_VA.jpg

Am I right, or is it somewhere else?

[Rothman]

I forgot whether I've brought this up before, but this image looks like it might be somewhere along I-81.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Runaway_truck_ramp,_VA.jpg

Am I right, or is it somewhere else?

I-68?

[hbelkins]

I forgot whether I've brought this up before, but this image looks like it might be somewhere along I-81.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Runaway_truck_ramp,_VA.jpg

Am I right, or is it somewhere else?

I almost think that's I-64 in West Virginia, east of Beckley, going east toward the New River Gorge.

[lordsutch]

Possibly I-77 southbound descending into NC.

EDIT: Yep.

[Zzonkmiles]

I forgot whether I've brought this up before, but this image looks like it might be somewhere along I-81.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Runaway_truck_ramp,_VA.jpg

Am I right, or is it somewhere else?

I almost think that's I-64 in West Virginia, east of Beckley, going east toward the New River Gorge.

I-77 south has those emergency ramps, so I'm pretty sure that's where this picture was taken--around mile marker 2-7.

[Mapmikey]

VDOT put out another Here and Now feature:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLMOr9x30Uw&feature=youtu.be

It is a series of then and now photos from southeast Virginia over a number of different years.  No discernible old route shields that I noticed...

Mike

[cpzilliacus]

Virginian-Pilot editorial via HamptonRoads.com: Lesson learned in public-private deals: Be careful

Just about everyone agrees that the private sector does some things better than government. Just about everyone also agrees that government can do some things more efficiently and effectively.

The trouble inevitably comes when ideology forces political leaders to ignore contrary evidence and govern as if private enterprise is always preferable, no matter what. Or that government is.

One of the primary differences in governing philosophy between former Gov. Bob McDonnell and current Gov. Terry McAuliffe can be found in their administrations' divergent attitudes toward public-private partnerships.

McDonnell's strenuous belief in the absolute supremacy of the private sector led him to some terrible decisions, fiscal debacles so severe that they'll define his legacy as surely as his federal conviction in a gift-giving scandal.

[EricJV95]

I just thought of something. Is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel building a new SOUTHBOUND 2 lane tunnel for southbound traffic only? And if so, When ?  Wouldn't it make sense to call the entire 170 Mile stretch of I-95 the Virginia Turnpike from the VA/NC State Line all the way up to the Beltway in Springfield? Even though part of 95 have the EZ Pass Toll Lanes.

[1995hoo]

Why would it make sense to call it the Virginia Turnpike? It's not a turnpike, although part of it was once tolled as part of the Richmond—Petersburg Turnpike (tolls removed in 1992).

[Thing 342]

Why would it make sense to call it the Virginia Turnpike? It's not a turnpike, although part of it was once tolled as part of the Richmond—Petersburg Turnpike (tolls removed in 1992).

I seem to remember there being a proposal to toll I-95 south of Richmond at one point. Based on the trouble VDOT's been having with recent tolled projects, it must have went nowhere.

[74/171FAN]

Why would it make sense to call it the Virginia Turnpike? It's not a turnpike, although part of it was once tolled as part of the Richmond—Petersburg Turnpike (tolls removed in 1992).

I seem to remember there being a proposal to toll I-95 south of Richmond at one point. Based on the trouble VDOT's been having with recent tolled projects, it must have went nowhere.

It was one of Bob McDonnell's ideas to toll I-95 at a spot south of Petersburg (and I think he wanted a toll on I-85 too).  It was dumped in favor of a new tax scheme that raised the sales tax. 

[1995hoo]

I believe there were to have been either two or three toll barriers: One near the state line, one shortly south of the southern I-295 interchange, and one somewhere near Fredericksburg.

The proposal went nowhere. I thought the McDonnell administration did a TERRIBLE job explaining it to the public. In fact, a friend of mine ran for state senate in 2013 (he didn't win) and I wound up preparing a four-page explanation for him so he'd understand the proposal if a voter asked!

[cpzilliacus]

I believe there were to have been either two or three toll barriers: One near the state line, one shortly south of the southern I-295 interchange, and one somewhere near Fredericksburg.

That was indeed the original proposal.  It got quickly pruned-back to just one barrier someplace in Southside (between the N.C. border and Petersburg). 

The proposal went nowhere. I thought the McDonnell administration did a TERRIBLE job explaining it to the public. In fact, a friend of mine ran for state senate in 2013 (he didn't win) and I wound up preparing a four-page explanation for him so he'd understand the proposal if a voter asked!

Agreed.  It was not at all well-explained, and making matters worse, more than a few people were confusing this with the Transurban 95 Express project.

[cpzilliacus]

Richmond.com: Richmond's air might be muggy, but it's awfully clean

The Richmond area is enjoying a summer of clean air. And that, state officials say, is part of a long-term trend.

Ozone, the main pollutant in smog, has not hit unsafe levels so far this summer. The region's only violation-free season on record came in 2009.

Bad-air days in the double digits were once common, but that has not happened since ozone was high on 11 days in 2012.

Antipollution programs and good weather are the main reasons for the cleaner air, experts say.

[cpzilliacus]

Why would it make sense to call it the Virginia Turnpike? It's not a turnpike, although part of it was once tolled as part of the Richmond—Petersburg Turnpike (tolls removed in 1992).

I don't know if you ever drove the RTP when it was still tolled - reminded me a lot of the Garden State Parkway.  Seemed like drivers were forever stopping to drop a quarter in the basket, and many of the ramps were also tolled (including the ones leading to U.S. 250 (East Broad Street) in Richmond, where I think the toll (exact change only, I think) was an odd amount (not a multiple of 25¢, maybe 10¢ or 15¢ or 20¢).

I think the southernmost barrier, on I-85 near the southwest border of Petersburg, was also an "odd" amount.

[cpzilliacus]

I just thought of something. Is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel building a new SOUTHBOUND 2 lane tunnel for southbound traffic only? And if so, When ?

This should point you in the direction of the documents that can answer that.

[1995hoo]

Responding to cpzilliacus–

I never drove on it myself when it was tolled, but I rode on it many times as a passenger. I don't remember the toll plaza once located on I-85 because the first time I was ever on said road was August of 1990 on a trip to go visit Duke when I was applying to colleges and I believe that plaza was gone by then. While I know where the Petersburg plaza was, I don't really remember it either because I was only far enough south to encounter it two times in all the years it was there–once when I was a little kid and then on that trip south to Duke. Didn't encounter it on the way back north from Duke because we went to Williamsburg via the Harrison Bridge and Route 5. (Regarding travel generally, my father did not like to travel south and, except for a couple of trips to Nags Head in the late 1970s, all our family vacations were trips north. But we did take the US-460 route to Nags Head one time. I-295 was not open during the few years we went down there; by the time it opened, my brother and I were old enough that my parents decided longer trips were in order and we headed north towards Maine and Canada.)

I remember the other two toll plazas quite well. On a high school trip to Chester once, we used a county-owned car instead of a school bus and our Latin teacher at the time, a very young guy, had the front-seat passenger try to throw the quarter out the passenger-side window over the roof of the car into the basket. Good thing traffic was lighter back then than it is now!

I recall a ramp toll on the Downtown Expressway (VA-195) being 20¢ sometime in 1996 or 1997. I had bailed off I-95 because I was afraid the cop behind me had seen my radar detector and I got back onto 195, but I didn't have any dimes so threw in a quarter. The light never turned green, so I just went on my way anyway.

[froggie]

Regarding tolling I-95, it should be noted that FHWA still considers Virginia as holding one of the three pilot slots for tolling existing Interstates for reconstruction purposes.  VDOT had originally requested the slot for I-81, but a few years ago they asked (and FHWA approved) shifting the slot to I-95.  This coincided with McDonnell's push to toll I-95.

[kendancy66]

Why would it make sense to call it the Virginia Turnpike? It's not a turnpike, although part of it was once tolled as part of the Richmond—Petersburg Turnpike (tolls removed in 1992).

I don't know if you ever drove the RTP when it was still tolled - reminded me a lot of the Garden State Parkway.  Seemed like drivers were forever stopping to drop a quarter in the basket, and many of the ramps were also tolled (including the ones leading to U.S. 250 (East Broad Street) in Richmond, where I think the toll (exact change only, I think) was an odd amount (not a multiple of 25¢, maybe 10¢ or 15¢ or 20¢).

I think the southernmost barrier, on I-85 near the southwest border of Petersburg, was also an "odd" amount.

The I85 toll was originally 20 cents.  I remember that because that toll and three 25 cent tolls on I95 added up to 95 cents. The other I95 toll south of I85 was 15 cents. Later the three 25 cent tolls were doubled to 50 cents each.  I believe at that point they closed down the I85 toll booths



Just as a reminder, please try not to duplicate posts as it is very frowned upon.

Thanks,
Mark

[1995hoo]

I was on I-395 yesterday and I got a good look at the new HOV ramp under construction on the south side of the Seminary Road interchange. As cpzilliacus and I had discussed once before, that is one BIG ramp since it's connecting to the top level of the interchange. There's a new pedestrian bridge under construction on the north side–going to be totally separate from the vehicular bridge, unlike the old setup where you walked on essentially a sidewalk. Looks like the ramp ought to be ready by the end of this year and the pedestrian bridge sometime next year.

Downside of this is, since the ramp is being constructed largely to serve the Defense Department monstrosity next to the highway there, it'll almost certainly mean yet another traffic light at the top of the ramp. I suppose that's better than the alternative of forcing people to make multiple left turns to go three-quarters of the way around the gyratory center level of that interchange. But Seminary Road really needs more of a rebuild through there. The current design causes all sorts of problems between I-395 and Beauregard Street because the north-/west-bound thru lanes on Seminary become left-turn-only at Beauregard, while the ramp lanes coming from I-395 become the thru lanes on Seminary. Lots (certainly not all) of the ramp traffic is heading to the Mark Center, but Seminary traffic heading to the Mark Center uses an earlier light not accessible to ramp traffic. So a good percentage of traffic in the Seminary Road lanes wants to stay on that road and they all have to shove right just as traffic exiting I-395 has to shove left in a very short space. Terrible layout. Problem is, unless they completely rebuild that interchange (which isn't happening) there's not much that can be done. Environmental issues with a nearby nature preserve quite properly prevented a direct ramp a bit further south into and out of the BRAC monstrosity. The better solution, but one that's long since sailed away, would have been for the Defense Department to have pulled their head out of their arse, listened to everyone who said that building didn't belong there, and located it somewhere else.



BTW, there is also a new right-turn lane soon to open on northbound Van Dorn Street at Pickett Street in Alexandria. Some new apartments or condos, I'm not sure which, just opened at that intersection. froggie and I had previously discussed how there wasn't much room for a turn lane there due to tight space and traffic light/utility poles. Looks like the city relocated some of said poles to make room for a lane. I was pleasantly surprised to see it on my commute yesterday morning. It's not a very long one because there just isn't room for that, but hopefully it'll help traffic flow a bit because lots of people turn right at that spot.

[Thing 342]

I found a bit of an oddity on Google Maps near Fredericksburg: Street View photos of a road that is now (apparently) underwater: https://goo.gl/maps/Z82Lh

It appears that this area was cleared and then flooded around 2013. Anyone have any more information about this?

[HTM Duke]

It looks like the road in question was severed as part of construction of the Lake Mooney Reservoir.  Details here (reservoir overview) and here (info pertaining to road).

[Mapmikey]

While I cringe at nearly every price tag revealed for projects around Virginia, in defense of the Stafford Interchange project they are acquiring quite a bit of land which is not all that cheap anymore in this corridor.  Other aspects include also building a new road over to US 1; destroying and I would assume removing underground tanks, etc for multiple gas stations; the terrain around this interchange is also challenging...

I think the proposed interchange is more complicated than it needs to be.  630 does need to be multilaned and the off-ramp from 95 SB is way too short for the amount of traffic that now uses it.  Of course, the Stafford Airport interchange was way over-designed (though sensibly not fully built out yet) and SR 8900's junction with US 1 seems comically spacious...so maybe this is just how we roll around here...

Of course less than 10 years ago I believe there weren't even any stoplights at this interchange...


Mapmikey

The proposed SR 630 Stafford Interchange is now envisioned as a DDI instead of the more complicated mess originally proposed, though still a little pricey at $149M

http://www.virginiadot.org/projects/resources/Fredericksburg/DDI_Map,_Exit_140_Courthouse_Road.PDF

VDOT's website puts this project in the "Coming soon" pile...

Mike

[cpzilliacus]

The proposed SR 630 Stafford Interchange is now envisioned as a DDI instead of the more complicated mess originally proposed, though still a little pricey at $149M

http://www.virginiadot.org/projects/resources/Fredericksburg/DDI_Map,_Exit_140_Courthouse_Road.PDF

VDOT's website puts this project in the "Coming soon" pile...

Send. Lots. of. Money. 

I make that assertion because of the land that VDOT will have to purchase for this to happen.