Virginia

[1995hoo]

CNN reports that Sen. Kaine was among the people stuck. To me the big issue would not be fuel, food, or water–it would be the cold.

[froggie]

^ Yes, Senator Kaine was tweeting about how he was stuck on northbound 95:

https://twitter.com/timkaine/status/1478357477158756352?s=20

NBC's White House Correspondent also tweeted overnight, but finally was able to start moving after 11 hours.

https://twitter.com/JoshNBCNews/status/1478256123006406664?s=20

[VTGoose]

[snipped the image]

So who screwed up? A lot of blame is being put on drivers who were on the road when they should have stayed home. We started to hear about the severity of the storm on Saturday with a Winter Storm Warning issued on Sunday (although we only got about 2" in Blacksburg despite the 4-6" forecast). There seemed to be plenty of warnings in other places with shut-down notices coming out Sunday night. On Twitter, someone wondered why the road wasn't pre-treated, but someone else pointed out that it was raining before the front brought the temperature down enough to snow. What about the tractor trailer drivers who caused all this? They may have needed to be somewhere, but what did they do (or not do) that caused the pileup from multiple jackknifed trucks? Hopefully some people learned some lessons about winter driving and preparation.

Bruce in Blacksburg

[WillWeaverRVA]

[snipped the image]

So who screwed up? A lot of blame is being put on drivers who were on the road when they should have stayed home. We started to hear about the severity of the storm on Saturday with a Winter Storm Warning issued on Sunday (although we only got about 2" in Blacksburg despite the 4-6" forecast). There seemed to be plenty of warnings in other places with shut-down notices coming out Sunday night. On Twitter, someone wondered why the road wasn't pre-treated, but someone else pointed out that it was raining before the front brought the temperature down enough to snow. What about the tractor trailer drivers who caused all this? They may have needed to be somewhere, but what did they do (or not do) that caused the pileup from multiple jackknifed trucks? Hopefully some people learned some lessons about winter driving and preparation.

Bruce in Blacksburg

It was basically the perfect storm. It started as rain, so VDOT couldn't pretreat the roads. Yes, a winter storm warning was issued, but the storm greatly overachieved. From a meteorological standpoint, given the fact that it was in the 70s over the weekend and there was a good amount of warm air in the upper atmosphere, it should've taken a lot longer for the snow to accumulate, and even though model forecasts were calling for high amounts of snow (as much as 18" in some spots), it just didn't appear likely that there would be that much accumulation (the most aggressive forecasts called for 4-8"). Unfortunately, Fredericksburg got over 14" of snow and there was a wide swath of snowfall totals of over 12" across that portion of the state.

[1995hoo]

The forecast for my area of Fairfax County was three to five inches. We got 11.8.

[plain]

Not much could've been done to stop this. The state actively warned people about the worsening conditions through media outlets but that's not reaching people driving through from out of state, which of course there are a lot of on I-95. Plus a lot of people were getting stuck on the exit ramps themselves, further trapping people on the highway. If they did make it off, they were stuck on the surface roads (my cousin being one of them).

I-64 west of Richmond was also closed for hours, the culprit there being downed trees. As of this post, that road is back open again except for delays EB between Gum Spring and Oilville.

[NJRoadfan]

Looks like the disaster has spread to the alternate routes of US-1 and US-301. US-17 and VA-3 aren't looking too good either. Meanwhile in North Jersey, not a flake of snow fell.

[Dirt Roads]

Anybody remember the "Blizzard of '93".  The same thing happened on the Beltway in Northern Virginia:  3 inches of rain, followed by 6 inches of snow, followed by 1/2-inch of rain, followed by an extremely hard freeze.  If I remember correctly, the freeze hit in early afternoon (someone please check this).  Most folks from out-of-state simply abandoned their vehicles on the Beltway and started walking around aimlessly in the slop while cars were playing shuffleboard on the ice.  The hard freeze lasted for days and it was very difficult to remove all of the stranded vehicles.

I lived in an apartment complex in NoVa at the time, and all of the cars in the parking lot got frozen stuck in 8-inches of ice plus for about three days.  I was apparently the only person in the complex with a mattox, and so I pick-axed my way out before nightfall the same day.  That evening, I tried to drive around Reston and Herndon to see the damage but it was brutal trying to jump between the 6-inch ruts and the packed ice (formerly slushy tire trails).  But I did go to work the next day, and (surprise) I was the only person that made it to the office.

[1995hoo]

The 1993 storm was in March, if I recall correctly. Huge storm that walloped most of the Southeast. I remember UVA basketball was leading UNC in the ACC Tournament semifinals when a snow-related power failure hit the Charlotte Coliseum. The teams retreated to the locker rooms and then UNC came back to win.

[hbelkins]

A lot of this snow went farther east than anticipated. My location was in the 1-2" range and we got nothing except just enough to be visible on rooftops and vehicles. Nothing on the ground here. The forecast was for a heavy wet snow that might cause power outages in far southeastern Kentucky near the Virginia state line, but I didn't hear of any.

Lots of people are angry at Youngkin for not calling out the National Guard to help get stranded drivers off the roads. Never mind that Youngkin hasn't even been sworn in yet and Northam is still governor.

But no matter who the governor is, this is a perfect case for calling out the NG to pull stuck/wrecked vehicles off the road so it can be plowed and salted.

[froggie]

The fly in the ointment there is the NG troops would be stuck on the roads as well trying to get to their stations to mobilize.  Only way to avoid that would have been to activate them BEFOREHAND, but as Will noted the storm wasn't forecasted to be as strong as it wound up being.

It reminds me a bit of "Commuteageddon" in DC in early 2011, where a day of rain (so no pretreatment) turned quickly into thundersleet (yes, that happened) then a heavy wet snow.  Multiple abandoned vehicles in the DC area from that one, especially on the GW Pkwy.

[1995hoo]

There was some lady on the news whose flight home from Orlando had been cancelled so many times that she gave up and rented a car and then got stuck on I-95. Ouch.

Following up on what froggie says, I don't doubt the construction on a significant portion of the I-95 segment in question is a further-exacerbating problem. I haven't been on I-95 south of Fairfax County since our trip to Florida this past May and June when we drove it in both directions, so things have surely changed somewhat, but I have no doubt there are places where the shoulder width is either reduced or eliminated and is affected by jersey walls or other barriers. No doubt that affects the ability of emergency responders to access the scene and probably have a negative effect on drainage (such that any snow melt pools and then refreezes if traffic isn't going by to keep it melted). The single-worst set of jackknifed trucks that was mentioned on the news here was on that downhill stretch near the airport north of Exit 136 (Centreport Parkway). That's in the heart of the construction zone for the HO/T lane extension project.

[NJRoadfan]

Just drove up I-95 last Friday. Bulk of shoulder closures are between Exit 130 and 136.

[Mapmikey]

There was some lady on the news whose flight home from Orlando had been cancelled so many times that she gave up and rented a car and then got stuck on I-95. Ouch.

Following up on what froggie says, I don't doubt the construction on a significant portion of the I-95 segment in question is a further-exacerbating problem. I haven't been on I-95 south of Fairfax County since our trip to Florida this past May and June when we drove it in both directions, so things have surely changed somewhat, but I have no doubt there are places where the shoulder width is either reduced or eliminated and is affected by jersey walls or other barriers. No doubt that affects the ability of emergency responders to access the scene and probably have a negative effect on drainage (such that any snow melt pools and then refreezes if traffic isn't going by to keep it melted). The single-worst set of jackknifed trucks that was mentioned on the news here was on that downhill stretch near the airport north of Exit 136 (Centreport Parkway). That's in the heart of the construction zone for the HO/T lane extension project.

Construction north of Centreport Pkwy has no impacts on 95 these days, especially southbound.

All it takes is one jack knifed truck to block all the lanes and that ends any hope of plowing the road as cars are occupying the road that was getting more and more heavy snow.  There were numerous reports of these over a very long stretch of 95. 

Commutageddon 2011 was a similar principle - everyone was thrown out of the office around the same time which was just the right time to get stuck in many parts of the DC area and plows/treatment couldn't be accomplished.  On that particular event I could read the tea leaves and I left a couple hours earlier than the mass of feds and I got home with little issue.

The common denominator is rain at the beginning, though I will argue that the current snow event came very large and very quickly where pre-treatment would not have held up given the heavy snowfall rate in the Fredericksburg area.

[famartin]

I can speak a bit about the meteorology aspect...

This storm was a bit of a surprise, as while a few models started to show a storm back on Friday, the usually high-quality European model didn't show a big storm until Saturday night. Watches were sent out early Sunday morning and warnings were issued in the afternoon. Snowfall forecasts were continually increasing during this time and all the way through early Monday morning. That said, there was still lots of uncertainty about just where the heaviest snow would fall, and given the multiple days of warm weather in advance, there was uncertainty about how much would end up sticking. As mentioned by others, the precip started as rain, so no chance to pre-treat.  Then came the actual snow, which ended up producing as much as the most bullish guidance suggested, which was 3" per hour for several hours along the I-95 corridor. Snow crews just can't keep up with that, even without traffic, and rumors suggest that a lot of folks didn't take the storm seriously, so traffic was much higher than hoped for.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Lots of people are angry at Youngkin for not calling out the National Guard to help get stranded drivers off the roads. Never mind that Youngkin hasn't even been sworn in yet and Northam is still governor.

I haven't seen that at all. Most people are angry at Northam for not even addressing the situation until this morning, and his statement wasn't much of a statement.

[hbelkins]

Lots of people are angry at Youngkin for not calling out the National Guard to help get stranded drivers off the roads. Never mind that Youngkin hasn't even been sworn in yet and Northam is still governor.

I haven't seen that at all. Most people are angry at Northam for not even addressing the situation until this morning, and his statement wasn't much of a statement.

"Youngkin" was trending on Twitter earlier today. The tweets were either criticism of Youngkin for not doing anything, or noting that the people criticizing Youngkin had misplaced their anger at him instead of Northam.

A friend of mine posted a video of driving along I-64, I think between Richmond and Charlottesville. Basically only one lane was open, and it kept zig-zagging because of snow piles and fallen/bent-over trees laden with heavy snow.

[oscar]

The 1993 storm was in March, if I recall correctly. Huge storm that walloped most of the Southeast.

I was in Florida for the 1993 storm, part of a team trying an antitrust case. There was a weekend break in the trial. Many of my colleagues, as well as opposing counsel, flew back to D.C. for the weekend. Big mistake, flying into the worst of the storm. The defendant's large legal team wound up chartering a bus from D.C. to Richmond Int'l Airport, and a flight to Tampa, to make it back to court in time.

I and another lawyer opted to stay in Florida that weekend (most of our work was done, but we still needed to help out during week 2 of the trial). I got in a few hours of beach time before the storm hit Florida, but thereafter lots of coastal flooding in Fort Myers, so we didn't come away unscathed.

[1995hoo]

You couldn't make this up if you tried. The job announcement linked below opened on Monday.

Such timing. Such EXQUISITE timing!

[LM117]

You couldn't make this up if you tried. The job announcement linked below opened on Monday.

Such timing. Such EXQUISITE timing!

I guess the ex-employee isn't gonna vote for Tim Kaine in 2024.

[hbelkins]

You couldn't make this up if you tried. The job announcement linked below opened on Monday.

Such timing. Such EXQUISITE timing!

I guess the ex-employee isn't gonna vote for Tim Kaine in 2024.

Is this a civil service position or a political appointment? How long has the position been vacant?

Here, the public information officer positions in the highway districts are civil service (merit system) jobs. The PIO position in the Pikeville district has been vacant since Sept. 30 due to the retirement of the former PIO. The impending vacancy was known for at least two months if not longer. To my knowledge, the job has not yet been posted for applicants. The chief district engineer is temporarily writing press releases, I'm sending them out to recipients, and a hodgepodge of us (me, the CDE there, and personnel in Public Affairs in Frankfort) are doing social media posts.

So it's possible that the VDOT job has been open for awhile and since the bureaucracy moves so slowly, it just got posted yesterday.

[WillWeaverRVA]

You couldn't make this up if you tried. The job announcement linked below opened on Monday.

Such timing. Such EXQUISITE timing!

I guess the ex-employee isn't gonna vote for Tim Kaine in 2024.

Is this a civil service position or a political appointment? How long has the position been vacant?

Here, the public information officer positions in the highway districts are civil service (merit system) jobs. The PIO position in the Pikeville district has been vacant since Sept. 30 due to the retirement of the former PIO. The impending vacancy was known for at least two months if not longer. To my knowledge, the job has not yet been posted for applicants. The chief district engineer is temporarily writing press releases, I'm sending them out to recipients, and a hodgepodge of us (me, the CDE there, and personnel in Public Affairs in Frankfort) are doing social media posts.

So it's possible that the VDOT job has been open for awhile and since the bureaucracy moves so slowly, it just got posted yesterday.

It's a civil service position, it's on the state job listing, so more than likely this is a coincidence. It's a funny coincidence, but a coincidence nonetheless.

This is also not the PIO position, the current Northern Virginia District PIO doesn't seem likely to go anywhere any time soon.

[1995hoo]

Of course it's just a coincidence. But it's just funny.

[VTGoose]

Is this a civil service position or a political appointment? How long has the position been vacant?

It is a state classified employee position in pay band 5 (out of 9) and it looks like it is more of a management position that helps develop the overall messages for the district. The PIO would be part of the system to spread that message.

[Dirt Roads]

Pulled over from the US-301 Nice Memorial Bridge thread:

Throughout the day today I had been continually checking google maps traffic conditions at the bridge. At one point, there was a 5 mile long dark red traffic jam on the Virginia side heading north, presumably in an attempt to avoid the mess that was I-95. I'm glad that the new bridge is adding lanes because there needs to be more redundancy in Potomac River crossings outside the DC metro.

I remember about 15 years ago I was traveling north on I-95 on a Sunday afternoon in the Summer (big mistake!).  I got into congestion somewhere between Richmond and Fredericksburg on I-95 so I took VA Route 3 to US 301 and thought I had effectively bypassed the congestion but then I got into backup on US 301 right before the Potomac River (4 lanes merge into 2).  It was pretty long at least 2 miles, but 5 is pretty bad in the winter.  It shows you how much Northern VA and Southern MD has grown in 15 years.  A US 301 freeway upgrade would be GREAT!  But at least they are addressing that merge bottleneck.

As mentioned by others upthread, both US-1 and US-301/VA-2 are neither suitable alternatives when I-95 is shut down (for obvious reasons).  I've always taken US-522 as an outlet valve, eventually working my way over to US-15/US-29 and beyond, if necessary.  I would rather spend 6 hours cruising around the beautiful Virginia countryside that 8 hours or more stuck between Richmond and Northern Virginia.  If one is going all the way to New York, simply focus on how to get to Harrisburg the fastest way.  If going to Baltimore (or even Suburban Maryland), try to focus on getting to Frederick the fastest way (even if it means heading west of the Blue Ridge through eastern West Virginia).  Philly and New Jersey are a mixed bag, but a couple of in between options I've used more than once are US-30 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. 

It was easier to develop these habits during the NMSL-55 days, but the rules seem to work even better with the alternative routes having higher speeds (as compared to near zero along the I-95 corridor).