Virginia

[hbelkins]

They have the Breaks spur signed as 460 already. As has been discussed before, I'm curious as to what will happen with VA 80, and KY 80.

On a recent trip up that way, coming out of Grundy toward Kentucky, I noticed some work going up a hill on the left. I presume that's the routing of the future 460.

That's interesting they have the route signed as US 460 when it doesn't connect to the rest of US 460.

I would think KYTC and VDOT would just keep KY 80 and VA 80 on its existing alignment. The routes provide access to Elkhorn City and Breaks Interstate Park, which would justify a primary state route number in Virginia. There's no point in assigning a new number when an existing one would work perfectly well.

It's really weird. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, the VDOT ArcGIS map shows the spur as US 460 (along with the existing US 460), but shows current VA 80 as SR 768. "Old VA 80"  is labeled as the actual VA 80 connecting to the spur.

Start at this pic and click forward to see how the signage is done:

2023 Jan-June photos - 1037 by H.B. Elkins, on Flickr

[WillWeaverRVA]

They have the Breaks spur signed as 460 already. As has been discussed before, I'm curious as to what will happen with VA 80, and KY 80.

On a recent trip up that way, coming out of Grundy toward Kentucky, I noticed some work going up a hill on the left. I presume that's the routing of the future 460.

That's interesting they have the route signed as US 460 when it doesn't connect to the rest of US 460.

I would think KYTC and VDOT would just keep KY 80 and VA 80 on its existing alignment. The routes provide access to Elkhorn City and Breaks Interstate Park, which would justify a primary state route number in Virginia. There's no point in assigning a new number when an existing one would work perfectly well.

It's really weird. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, the VDOT ArcGIS map shows the spur as US 460 (along with the existing US 460), but shows current VA 80 as SR 768. "Old VA 80"  is labeled as the actual VA 80 connecting to the spur.

Start at this pic and click forward to see how the signage is done:

2023 Jan-June photos - 1037 by H.B. Elkins, on Flickr

Thanks for this!

[roadman65]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/amazingandawesome/permalink/683166816962679/
This is not the CBBT as the article is about.  A FB article aimed to be informative to the public about the iconic engineering marvel along US 13, but instead uses a photo of I-664's Bridge- Tunnel.

Shows you how non road geeks think all bridges look a like.  However, bottom line is you think the author could use an actual CBBT photo. It's not like they're hard to find.

Removed political reference.  -Mark

[1995hoo]

Adam Tuss of DC's NBC-4 has a story about plans in the works to fix the mess at Seven Corners. That intersection was bad in the 1970s and a fix is long overdue. The eminent domain costs associated with this proposal would not be trivial, though.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/transportation/seven-corners-with-a-name-like-that-you-know-traffics-rough-but-fairfax-county-has-a-redesign-plan/3400541/

[Rothman]

Adam Tuss of DC's NBC-4 has a story about plans in the works to fix the mess at Seven Corners. That intersection was bad in the 1970s and a fix is long overdue. The eminent domain costs associated with this proposal would not be trivial, though.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/transportation/seven-corners-with-a-name-like-that-you-know-traffics-rough-but-fairfax-county-has-a-redesign-plan/3400541/

I lived near there for a short time.  Unless the businesses have had a steep decline in the meantime, this plan is infeasible.

[1995hoo]

Someone on Twitter responded to Adam Tuss by saying that Seven Corners is the Gate 35X of intersections. Great line. (For those unfamiliar, Gate 35X was the much-loathed gate at Reagan Airport that served regional jets and commuter flights. You had to go down an escalator, go outside, and take a shuttle bus to the plane. It's now been closed because they expanded the terminal to the north to replace it.)

[froggie]

Adam Tuss of DC's NBC-4 has a story about plans in the works to fix the mess at Seven Corners. That intersection was bad in the 1970s and a fix is long overdue. The eminent domain costs associated with this proposal would not be trivial, though.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/transportation/seven-corners-with-a-name-like-that-you-know-traffics-rough-but-fairfax-county-has-a-redesign-plan/3400541/

I lived near there for a short time.  Unless the businesses have had a steep decline in the meantime, this plan is infeasible.

Infeasible in New York, perhaps.  Not so much in the Southeast.  If the state and county want to plunk enough change down on it (the recent I-66 expansion being a good example), it'll happen.

[1995hoo]

It might also be worth noting that there are some important political reasons for their wanting to route the proposed "ring road" the way they've suggested. If you look at the map in the article I linked, you'll see where the yellow line (phase 4) ends at the top right of the image at what would become a crossroads with Wilson Boulevard and Roosevelt Street. It might look like it would be less costly and less disruptive to ram the road through the shopping center at the top left of that intersection–on the map, it looks like a sea of parking to the right of the "3" icon. Problem is, that would open a massive political can of worms because that shopping center is Eden Center, which over the years has evolved into both the single largest Vietnamese-centric commercial center, and the largest East Asian shopping center, on the East Coast. There are over 120 businesses in there. There would be considerable political sensitivity to displacing them both because of that shopping center's popularity among the DC area's very significant Vietnamese community and because a fair number of those businesses were previously displaced from the Clarendon section of Arlington in the late 1970s/early 1980s after property values spiked once the Metrorail Orange Line opened–there would be an understandable reluctance to displace them again. There was a bunch of controversy earlier this year about redevelopment plans for some nearby property because the Vietnamese business owners fear it's a ploy to spike the rents to drive them out–they're worried it's going to go the way of DC's Chinatown, which is sometimes now referred to as "Chinablock" after most of the Chinese businesses closed due to the spike in property values after the sports arena opened.

(Another likely reason for routing the "ring road" around the way the map shows is that it avoids the issue of crossing jurisdictional lines. Eden Center is within the City of Falls Church, whereas the entire proposed "ring road" would be in Fairfax County. It makes a difference in terms of VDOT jurisdiction.)

[FLAVORTOWN]

How on earth did this happen

The way the sign looks it looks like someone changed the sign to make it wrong 

https://twitter.com/AdamTuss/status/1689294361786249216

[sprjus4]

I noticed this on Street View... IIRC North Carolina is the only state that uses "Reduce Speed Ahead" vs. the typical "Reduced Speed Ahead."

But there's at least once instance along the I-395 Express Lanes that use NCDOT's verbiage.
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8565253,-77.0719,3a,55.7y,24.75h,94.16t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s4GobNF8uSC3SUxbE1yN7pQ!2e0!5s20230501T000000!7i16384!8i8192!5m1!1e1?entry=ttu

[1995hoo]

Regarding the I-66 signs, Adam Tuss did a report on that on last night's news. He said VDOT had responded that they planned to fix it overnight. I noticed the apparent greenout as well and I wondered if they had reused signs intended for somewhere else along I-66 and simply mis-corrected them, as it were.

The article on their website doesn't have video of his report:

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/transportation/east-or-west-i-66-signs-give-conflicting-directions-to-dc/3401413/



Regarding "Reduce Speed Ahead," I'm aware of at least one other sign in Virginia that uses that phrasing. It's on the left side of the westbound Dulles Toll Road as you approach the main toll plaza (oddly, the companion sign in the right side of the road uses "Reduced" instead). I don't know whether the end of cash tolls has already caused, or will cause, the removal of those two signs; I haven't been through there since April, and for that trip I was on the Dulles Access Road and thus didn't notice these signs. Last time I was on the Toll Road was last December.

[sprjus4]

^ Street View from the exit ramp from July 2023 shows it was still there. What is the latest with removing the toll plazas?

[1995hoo]

^ Street View from the exit ramp from July 2023 shows it was still there. What is the latest with removing the toll plazas?

Don't know. You could try clicking around in Street View to see. I just haven't had reason to head in that direction recently; at the present time, I don't expect to head that way until either November (depending on whether I fly out of Dulles or Reagan for a business trip) or December (for our annual Christmastime trip to L'Auberge Chez Francois).

[1995hoo]

https://twitter.com/AdamTuss/status/1689735231660564480

[1995hoo]

What the fuuuuucccccckkkkkkkkk! This is what shut down inbound I-395 at the 14th Street Bridge this afternoon!

https://twitter.com/statter911/status/1690477210635816960?s=46&t=4x1IleAiOaGI774Clh5sww

https://twitter.com/statter911/status/1690469138542567424?s=46&t=4x1IleAiOaGI774Clh5sww

[plain]

Was the truck stolen too?

[1995hoo]

Was the truck stolen too?

Indeed it was! The story developed more after I posted those tweets. It seems he stole the truck, drove it illegally on I-66 and caused crashes there, went down Route 110 to I-395 and caused the crashes seen in the video linked in one of those tweets, abandoned the truck, stole an ambulance, and led cops on a chase in which he caused 13 hit-and-run crashes. Police caught him at 14th and D NW after he caused a head-on collision.

WTOP has the details.


Edited to add: The news reports say 14th and D NW, but the pictures I've seen don't match that location, which is across from the Department of Commerce adjacent to the Reagan Building. The pictures I'm seeing look like Southwest, not Northwest.

[bluecountry]

I-95 Beltway to I-295:

1.  The current project, FREDEX and the Rap Bridge, is wholly insufficient.
-After the C/D lanes end south of Route 3, there is a big bottleneck, it needed to extend to exit 126 which itself needed a separate exit for RT 17 so RT 17 s traffic does not have to go on RT 1.

2.  Any reason why, south of exit 126, you get a very nice break in traffic until exit 98 (Route 207) but south of Route 207 congestion starts up?  That exit is in very rural Caroline County...my thinking is that motorists using Route 301 to get to VA would normally pick up 95 here, is that the case?

[bluecountry]

I-64 expansion, drove it for the first time in years from I-295 to the HR beltway.
I am mixed, while there did need to be an expansion, I really liked the landscaped tree median before, and unfortunately it has been lost.
While the capacity is increased, I wish they could have kept that median, because now the vision is not as good which I cannot help but think reduces the improvement.

[74/171FAN]

^Exit 98 is VA 30.  Exit 104 is for VA 207.

[1995hoo]

Exit 98 is the exit for Kings Dominion. If bluecountry is saying something about traffic there, I'd guess the amusement park is the reason.

[sprjus4]

I-64 expansion, drove it for the first time in years from I-295 to the HR beltway.
I am mixed, while there did need to be an expansion, I really liked the landscaped tree median before, and unfortunately it has been lost.
While the capacity is increased, I wish they could have kept that median, because now the vision is not as good which I cannot help but think reduces the improvement.

Unfortunately, they are not going to acquire more right of way in order to retain the forested median. I do agree though, it was nice to have.

It will likely all be gone soon... the 29 mile gap will be fully widened to 6 lanes by 2030 as three major projects begin to ramp up over the next year or so.

[74/171FAN]

Exit 98 is the exit for Kings Dominion. If bluecountry is saying something about traffic there, I'd guess the amusement park is the reason.

I was presuming that bluecountry was talking about the merge from VA 207 WB onto I-95 SB at Exit 104.

I'd be the last person to ask about Kings Dominion congestion as I probably have not been there since high school.

[Strider]

Exit 98 is the exit for Kings Dominion. If bluecountry is saying something about traffic there, I'd guess the amusement park is the reason.

I was presuming that bluecountry was talking about the merge from VA 207 WB onto I-95 SB at Exit 104.

I'd be the last person to ask about Kings Dominion congestion as I probably have not been there since high school.

I think he was talking about Exit 104. Most traffic use VA 207 to access US 301 to bypass Washington, Baltimore and etc. and to pick up I-95 when heading south. It is also the last exit for drivers to access US 301 from I-95.

[1995hoo]

Exit 98 is the exit for Kings Dominion. If bluecountry is saying something about traffic there, I'd guess the amusement park is the reason.

I was presuming that bluecountry was talking about the merge from VA 207 WB onto I-95 SB at Exit 104.

I'd be the last person to ask about Kings Dominion congestion as I probably have not been there since high school.

I last visited Kings Dominion in 1992 myself (a year after I graduated from high school). The only amusement park I've been to in the past 15 years is Six Flags over in Maryland–the Washington Capitals have occasionally rented it for a "meet-the-team" event for season ticket holders and we've gone to that event. (Not all the rides are open when they've done this.)