John Rolfe Parkway - near Richmond VA

[Beltway]

The last segment is about to open, from Pump Road to Ridgefield Parkway.  All lines have been painted, all signs are posted, and the signals at Pump and John Rolfe are energized (blinking yellow for now on Pump Road).  Should be open to traffic on my next visit this weekend ... I will post the newspaper article.

John Rolfe Parkway is a 4-lane at-grade limited access highway, between Lauderdale Road and Broad Street in western Henrico County, VA.  It extends 1/4 mile into the big box stores on Broad Street.  It uses the former planned eastern corridor for VA-288, and no, it will not be extended into I-295 and I-64.  It also will not be extended south to VA-6 Patterson Avenue (a 4-lane arterial), even though that would be logical from a traffic standpoint, because that segment would cross major wetlands and Tuckahoe Creek, requiring a bridge at least 800 feet long and maybe over 1,000 feet long.

Still it has good connectivity with other major roads, and will provide needed traffic relief to other north-south roads.

[1995hoo]

Given its name, it should have been positioned to merge with the Pocahontas Parkway.

[Beltway]

Given its name, it should have been positioned to merge with the Pocahontas Parkway.

Were they contemporaries?

[NE2]

Given its name, it should have been positioned to merge with the Pocahontas Parkway.

Were they contemporaries?

Whoosh.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Expect photos from me when this opens. I might also get some pictures of the North Gayton Road extension project, which is important as it will provide a bypass of the Short Pump shopping district (as well as a back way in) along US 250 in western Henrico County. This section is a traffic nightmare almost 24/7.

[Beltway]

Expect photos from me when this opens. I might also get some pictures of the North Gayton Road extension project, which is important as it will provide a bypass of the Short Pump shopping district (as well as a back way in) along US 250 in western Henrico County. This section is a traffic nightmare almost 24/7.

It's busy for part of the day, and not busy for the other part of the day.  Broad Street has 6 lanes through the whole area, and Pouncey Tract Road has 4 lanes in the immediate Short Pump area.  VA-288/US-250 is already used as a "back door" to the shopping centers and mall. 

The North Gayton Road extension project, will provide major traffic relief to VA-271 Pouncey Tract Road, though.

North Gayton Road will eventually have an interchange with I-64, but FHWA has not yet approved the interchange justification study.  I would be interested in seeing a design plan for the ramps; given the constraints on the south side it may be a SPUI or other urban interchange.

I don't understand why Henrico County approved all that development smack up against that interchange area, and the I-64/I-295 interchange.  It's as if they were trying to make it impossible to build the southern half of the I-64/I-295 interchange.

[Beltway]

Given its name, it should have been positioned to merge with the Pocahontas Parkway.

Were they contemporaries?

Whoosh.

Oh I see ... a "guy-girl" thing.

The Pocahontas Parkway opened in 2002, and for several years afterward there were reports of ghosts in the area around the main toll plaza.  Have there been any more reports of such in the last few years?

[1995hoo]

Given its name, it should have been positioned to merge with the Pocahontas Parkway.

Were they contemporaries?

Whoosh.

Oh I see ... a "guy-girl" thing.

The Pocahontas Parkway opened in 2002, and for several years afterward there were reports of ghosts in the area around the main toll plaza.  Have there been any more reports of such in the last few years?

Pocahontas was John Rolfe's wife (well, first wife; she died after a trip to England a few years later and Rolfe later remarried). I haven't seen the Disney film, which was fiction.

[Beltway]

Given its name, it should have been positioned to merge with the Pocahontas Parkway.

Were they contemporaries?

Whoosh.

Oh I see ... a "guy-girl" thing.

The Pocahontas Parkway opened in 2002, and for several years afterward there were reports of ghosts in the area around the main toll plaza.  Have there been any more reports of such in the last few years?

Pocahontas was John Rolfe's wife (well, first wife; she died after a trip to England a few years later and Rolfe later remarried). I haven't seen the Disney film, which was fiction.

I could have found that out if I had done a simple Google search ...

Rename Chippenham Parkway the John Rolfe Parkway?

[Beltway]

The last segment is about to open, from Pump Road to Ridgefield Parkway.  All lines have been painted, all signs are posted, and the signals at Pump and John Rolfe are energized (blinking yellow for now on Pump Road).  Should be open to traffic on my next visit this weekend ... I will post the newspaper article.

No newspaper article yet ... but I drove it today, it's all open, and a very nice highway.

My trips out there are on Sunday, and traffic on the John Rolfe Parkway is rather light then.

Those folks out there who can see it during rush hours ... does it get fairly busy then?

[WillWeaverRVA]

The road isn't very heavily traveled...yet. I imagine traffic will eventually increase now that it's been completed. Of course, it's probably going to take quite some time for people to start using it. In 2010, the only existing segment for much of the year (the original segment between Ridgefield Pkwy and Lauderdale Dr) had an AADT of 5100 vehicles. This was up from 3200 vehicles in 2005.

Compare this to Parham Road (one of the two most important secondary roads in Henrico County, the other being Laburnum Ave), which had an AADT of over 20,000 vehicles in all sections surveyed in 2010. Gaskins Road sees even more traffic. Of course, both of those routes have interchanges with I-64 at some point, whereas John Rolfe Pkwy does not. If it could somehow be built to connect to I-295 (which is no longer possible due to development), it'd probably see quite a bit more traffic.

EDIT: Photos are here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/coredesatchikai/sets/72157628122464358/

[Beltway]

The road isn't very heavily traveled...yet. I imagine traffic will eventually increase now that it's been completed. Of course, it's probably going to take quite some time for people to start using it. In 2010, the only existing segment for much of the year (the original segment between Ridgefield Pkwy and Lauderdale Dr) had an AADT of 5100 vehicles. This was up from 3200 vehicles in 2005.

Compare this to Parham Road (one of the two most important secondary roads in Henrico County, the other being Laburnum Ave), which had an AADT of over 20,000 vehicles in all sections surveyed in 2010. Gaskins Road sees even more traffic. Of course, both of those routes have interchanges with I-64 at some point, whereas John Rolfe Pkwy does not. If it could somehow be built to connect to I-295 (which is no longer possible due to development), it'd probably see quite a bit more traffic.

EDIT: Photos are here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/coredesatchikai/sets/72157628122464358/

It will provide needed relief to Pump Road, which is a congested road during peak hours.  It is well connected to other roads, and with 5 or 10 years of growth in western Henrico County, it will eventually carry plenty of traffic.

John Rolfe is a 4-lane at-grade expressway, and has far more capacity than can be used now.  That's good, in a high-growth area, to get decent capacity out well ahead of the growth.

That high of a design is an indirect result of the unused freeway right-of-way for eastern Route 288 between I-295 and Gayton Road.  Notice the very gradual horizontal curves.  At Pump and Church the freeway would have passed right above that intersection (I've seen the original plans), and they built the current highway at-grade with a low-speed connection, basically John Rolfe and Pump overlap for 1/2 mile, although it appears that the physical name of the overlapped section carries only the John Rolfe Parkway name.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Yes, that segment is a hidden concurrency between the two routes.

[Beltway]

Yes, that segment is a hidden concurrency between the two routes.

Drove it again this evening ... interesting after dark.  It's 3.4 miles long.  Wonder why the connection to Church Road is 4 lanes ... doesn't seem like traffic would warrant that.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Yes, that segment is a hidden concurrency between the two routes.

Drove it again this evening ... interesting after dark.  It's 3.4 miles long.  Wonder why the connection to Church Road is 4 lanes ... doesn't seem like traffic would warrant that.

Probably because that was the original plan for the route in the first place. The entire parkway was designed as a 4-lane divided arterial, and given its purpose (to funnel traffic off Pump Road and provide a relief route in western Henrico County), 4 lanes is about right even if traffic doesn't seem to warrant that yet. Church Road sees a fair amount of traffic, though not as much as Pump Road.

[Beltway]

Yes, that segment is a hidden concurrency between the two routes.

Drove it again this evening ... interesting after dark.  It's 3.4 miles long.  Wonder why the connection to Church Road is 4 lanes ... doesn't seem like traffic would warrant that.

Probably because that was the original plan for the route in the first place. The entire parkway was designed as a 4-lane divided arterial, and given its purpose (to funnel traffic off Pump Road and provide a relief route in western Henrico County), 4 lanes is about right even if traffic doesn't seem to warrant that yet. Church Road sees a fair amount of traffic, though not as much as Pump Road.

I understand John Rolfe being 4 lanes ... I was wondering about Church Road being 4 lanes.