Original Exit numbering in Hampton, VA

[roadman65]

Back in the 70s before VA started using exit numbers (sequential was added in the early 80s, and milepost was added in the early 90's) I-64 in Hampton had its own scheme of numbers there.  It was not part of all I-64's exits comming from the west, but from east to west starting with number 1 west of the HRBT and ending at La Salle Avenue!

Did the City of Hampton try to have its own scheme then being that VDOT did not use them elsewhere on I-64?  Or was I-64 (like one member here once stated) to originally be VA 168 and this was for that?

Also, if I am not mistaken I-664 never was changed over to milepost based exits twenty years ago.  Some maps show them continious across the MMMBT and no gap between them.  I think that I-395 in Northern Virginia also is sequential still, but who notices there with all exits in close proximity to each other!

[Mapmikey]

Your post is the first I've heard of Hampton exit numbering such as you describe.  My 1963 Esso map of Hampton does not show any exit numbering.  One theory could be that the HRBT was a toll road out to La Salle and had exit numbers for that which were not congruent with the rest of I-64's numbering (I-95 had this issue for many years).  My other theory is that you could be remembering the northern stretch of I-664 which opened decades ago?

The sequential exit numbering in Virginia that ended in the early 1990s goes back to at least the mid 1960s; The CTB minutes explicilty mentions exit numbers for I-81 and future VA 44 as early as 1965.  Here is a picture that was reported as 1967:
http://www.millenniumhwy.net/summa/summa-Pages/Image229.html

The 1961 Rand McN implies that the Richmond-Petersburg Tpk had exit numbers.

The only 3di's in Virginia with mile-based numberings is I-295 and I-495.

I-381 and I-564 have no exit numbers.

I-581 still uses N-S-E-W as suffixes instead of A-B.

Bypass systems of Lynchburg, Christiansburg, Tazewell, Bluefield, Norton, and Richlands all have exit numbers that are sequential.

Mapmikey

[roadman65]

Your post is the first I've heard of Hampton exit numbering such as you describe.  My 1963 Esso map of Hampton does not show any exit numbering.  One theory could be that the HRBT was a toll road out to La Salle and had exit numbers for that which were not congruent with the rest of I-64's numbering (I-95 had this issue for many years).  My other theory is that you could be remembering the northern stretch of I-664 which opened decades ago?

The sequential exit numbering in Virginia that ended in the early 1990s goes back to at least the mid 1960s; The CTB minutes explicilty mentions exit numbers for I-81 and future VA 44 as early as 1965.  Here is a picture that was reported as 1967:
http://www.millenniumhwy.net/summa/summa-Pages/Image229.html

The 1961 Rand McN implies that the Richmond-Petersburg Tpk had exit numbers.

The only 3di's in Virginia with mile-based numberings is I-295 and I-495.

I-381 and I-564 have no exit numbers.

I-581 still uses N-S-E-W as suffixes instead of A-B.

Bypass systems of Lynchburg, Christiansburg, Tazewell, Bluefield, Norton, and Richlands all have exit numbers that are sequential.

Mapmikey

On I-95 and I-64 there were no exit numbers until the 80s!  Like you mentioned I-95 had them for the Richmond Petersburg Turnpike and were their own.  Exit 1 was on I-85 and the highest number was 17 for US 301 and VA 2 north of Richmond. 

I know that there were no exit numbers in the Hampton Roads area until the mid 80s and for some time they stopped at J Clyde Morris Boulevard and did have one digit numbers on the part nearest the HRBT.    I did not take pictures as a kid, but I know that I-64 was numbered there as well as VA 168 being duplexed with it until the last segment of I-64 was openened near Williamsburg that used part of the four laned VA 168 to make the freeway!   

It might of been the toll road theory, as many toll bridges have them on expressways leading to them today and previous.  The Holland Tunnel has them in NY and the GWB did in New Jersey until I-95 was completed.

[amroad17]

I moved to Chesapeake, VA from Syracuse in 1972.  I remember exits originally numbered from 4-10. Mallory St. was exit 4 , US 60/VA143 was exit 5, LaSalle Ave. was exit 6, the Newport News Connector Road was exit 7, Mercury Blvd. was exit 8, J. Clyde Morris (US 17) was exit 9, and Jefferson Blvd. was exit 10.  The Ft. Eustis exit was not numbered nor any exits west to Camp Peary (current exit 238) where I-64 transitioned into the four-lane VA 168 until 1976.  I have no idea why the numbers started at 4 unless exit 1 was supposed to be Granby St., exit 2 4th View, and exit 3 Ocean View Ave at the south end of the HRBT.   

[ARMOURERERIC]

I can shed some light on this:

I did some roadgeek research at the Fairfax VA library back in mid-late 1991, there was a pamphlet in their vertical files dated 1957 as an instructtional flyer for the new Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel.  as of openig the Norfolk end of the tunnel approach consisted of what is now Tidewater Drive and Ocean View Avenue. Even though as part of the project, Tidwater Drive was improved all the way down to downtown Norfolk, access control did not begin to Little Creek Road, which IIRC was Exit 1, with Bay View being Exit 2, and Ocean View Ave, US 60 East being Exit 3

[Mapmikey]

The 1974 and 1980 Topo maps of Hampton (available for viewing at historicaerials.com) labels Interchanges 4-10 as decribed by amroad17.

These maps do not show any interchange numbers on the Norfolk side of the HRBT.

Mapmikey

[1995hoo]

....  I think that I-395 in Northern Virginia also is sequential still, but who notices there with all exits in close proximity to each other!

This statement is basically correct except that there is no Exit 9 for northbound traffic (Exit 9 southbound connects to US-1 in Crystal City).

I'm pretty sure there's been some minor tweaking of exit numbers on I-395 sometime in the past 10 to 15 years. The last exit in Virginia before the 14th Street Bridge (a left-side exit that was for many years marked solely and oddly as "Memorial Br"–I say "oddly" because there was little reason for anyone to use that ramp to go to Memorial Bridge) was marked as Exit 11 for many years but is now Exit 10C. I recall there being a very short, perhaps one-paragraph, blurb in the Washington Post (most likely Dr. Gridlock's column when Ron Shaffer was still Dr. Gridlock) mentioning the number-tweaking at the same time when Virginia was renumbering the exits on I-495 to their current setup. I-395 is a smidgen less than 10 miles long in Virginia–the FHWA logs list it as 9.91 miles–but I don't know whether that was the factor that spurred them to change it or whether it was a desire for consistency with the southbound carriageway, where the GW Parkway exit was always some version of Exit 10.

[dfnva]

This statement is basically correct except that there is no Exit 9 for northbound traffic (Exit 9 southbound connects to US-1 in Crystal City).

Exit 9 did exist northbound on I-395. It was "To US-1/National Airport," which exits onto S. Hayes St (curiously not named on the signage), now known as Exit 8C. This change was done when Exit 11 became Exit 10C.

[amroad17]

I can shed some light on this:

I did some roadgeek research at the Fairfax VA library back in mid-late 1991, there was a pamphlet in their vertical files dated 1957 as an instructtional flyer for the new Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel.  as of openig the Norfolk end of the tunnel approach consisted of what is now Tidewater Drive and Ocean View Avenue. Even though as part of the project, Tidwater Drive was improved all the way down to downtown Norfolk, access control did not begin to Little Creek Road, which IIRC was Exit 1, with Bay View being Exit 2, and Ocean View Ave, US 60 East being Exit 3

This does make sense as I-64 was originally just VA 168 when first built in the late 50's-early 60's.

[roadman65]

I can shed some light on this:

I did some roadgeek research at the Fairfax VA library back in mid-late 1991, there was a pamphlet in their vertical files dated 1957 as an instructtional flyer for the new Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel.  as of openig the Norfolk end of the tunnel approach consisted of what is now Tidewater Drive and Ocean View Avenue. Even though as part of the project, Tidwater Drive was improved all the way down to downtown Norfolk, access control did not begin to Little Creek Road, which IIRC was Exit 1, with Bay View being Exit 2, and Ocean View Ave, US 60 East being Exit 3

This does make sense as I-64 was originally just VA 168 when first built in the late 50's-early 60's.

That explains why VA 143 came into play.  I often wondered why VA 143 was created as the concurrent alignment of VA 168 with I-64 was terminated when the final segment of I-64 was opened then the rest of VA 168 became an extension of VA 30.

I did read somewhere that VA 168 was the main highway through the VA Peninsula and NOT US 60.  I imagine that it was warranted to build a newer alignment for VA 168 as more autos came into existence.  It would not be the first time a freeway was built for one road and later becoming an interstate such as I-295 in NJ from Exits 13 to 26 being built as an alignment of US 130 to bypass Gibbstown and Paulsboro and the many toll roads that were built.  Plus, Jefferson Avenue  and Merrimack Trail is four lanes while Warwick Boulevard narrows to two lanes at one point with US 60 being that until Busch Gardens. 

[ARMOURERERIC]

The original configuration of the western terminus of the HRBT approach freeway ended at Jefferson ave in ints current location with just a simple SB to EB freeway wye, as opped to the full cloverleaf there now.  for many years the US 17/J Clyde Morris exit was only a half-cloverleaf with only the 4 ramps to/from Norfolk in existance.

Histroic Ariels can show a good view of the Tidewater Drive approach newly opened all the way to downtown Norfolk and the Berkely bridge.