Virginia

[Beltway]

It would also extend economic opportunities of having a blue-and-red shield

Interstate-advocates always make claims like this, but validated economic studies don't substantiate that.

Can you link to one of those studies? They say that here as well, especially with the recent signing of I-165.

I meant that I don't know of any, at least any body of validated economic research that would lead me to believe that idea.

[sprjus4]

It would also extend economic opportunities of having a blue-and-red shield

Interstate-advocates always make claims like this, but validated economic studies don't substantiate that.

Can you link to one of those studies? They say that here as well, especially with the recent signing of I-165.

I meant that I don't know of any, at least any body of validated economic research that would lead me to believe that idea.

Are you denying that the interstate highway system has led to economic growth?

[Beltway]

It would also extend economic opportunities of having a blue-and-red shield

Interstate-advocates always make claims like this, but validated economic studies don't substantiate that.

Can you link to one of those studies? They say that here as well, especially with the recent signing of I-165.

I meant that I don't know of any, at least any body of validated economic research that would lead me to believe that idea.

Are you denying that the interstate highway system has led to economic growth?

No, but the national system is in place, and much of that was built when it cost about one million dollars per mile to build rural mileage.  And now it is quite expensive to keep that in service.

What we are talking about now is today's costs/benefits of tacking on routes that in most cases do not have national significance.

[jakeroot]

Are you denying that the interstate highway system has led to economic growth?

Are you implying that freeways alone don't lead to economic growth?

The interstates certainly led to economic growth. That's not deniable. But was it the shield, or the 60-80mph grade-separated roadway that led to the economic growth?

[Alps]

Are you denying that the interstate highway system has led to economic growth?

Are you implying that freeways alone don't lead to economic growth?

The interstates certainly led to economic growth. That's not deniable. But was it the shield, or the 60-80mph grade-separated roadway that led to the economic growth?

More the second, but some of the first.

[jakeroot]

The interstates certainly led to economic growth. That's not deniable. But was it the shield, or the 60-80mph grade-separated roadway that led to the economic growth?

More the second, but some of the first.

No doubt, but how true is that still?

Early on, "interstate" had lots of weight to it. People knew that those were the truly important cross-country roads. That's still true today (I think most people know what "interstate" means, as it relates to the entire system), but I don't know how many people find "_____ Freeway" suddenly more economically-interesting just because it has a blue shield. Around here at least, an interstate is just another freeway. I-5 and I-90 have special meaning, but applying a 3DI to one of our numerous 500-series freeways wouldn't do much of anything. Especially since we usually drop the "I" when referring to the interstates anyway.

[froggie]

Even the Interstate shield is no guarantee that you'll have positive economic growth, especially of the non-retail variety.  Witness Meridian, MS as an example.  That city has lost population over the past 20 years despite annexation.

[oscar]

The interstates certainly led to economic growth. That's not deniable. But was it the shield, or the 60-80mph grade-separated roadway that led to the economic growth?

More the second, but some of the first.

No doubt, but how true is that still?

Early on, "interstate" had lots of weight to it. People knew that those were the truly important cross-country roads. That's still true today (I think most people know what "interstate" means, as it relates to the entire system), but I don't know how many people find "_____ Freeway" suddenly more economically-interesting just because it has a blue shield. Around here at least, an interstate is just another freeway. I-5 and I-90 have special meaning, but applying a 3DI to one of our numerous 500-series freeways wouldn't do much of anything. Especially since we usually drop the "I" when referring to the interstates anyway.

The economic impact might depend a lot on how desperate a region is for growth/economic improvement. The western state DOTs that are most indifferent/resistant to the beauty of those red-white-and-blue shields (most notoriously Arizona's) seem to be the ones with already-high growth rates, and the focus is on handling existing growth rather than attracting new growth.

[VTGoose]

One thing that gets me is these political campaign yard signs you see around that have the candidate name in giant letters, but the party name affiliation is usually omitted.  If you are driving outside your own district you probably don't know enough about the candidates there to know that unless it is posted on the sign, and if they want to inform everybody in their own district they should be aware that some people won't know if you don't tell them.

Sorry to stray a little further off topic, but in some ways this does have an impact on roads in a locality due to "hidden" affiliations. Typically (at least at this end of the state), local races don't include a party affiliation on the ballot (board of supervisors, town council, constitutional offices [sheriff, commissioner of revenue, et al]) or on campaign material. The local party is free to promote the candidates who affiliate with their party but that is outside the local election process. Here in Montgomery County, the board of supervisors is split with 4 Republicans and 3 Democrats (with the Democrats having districts that include parts of college-town Blacksburg and the Republicans having districts that cover the rural areas of the county). Votes on things like taxes usually split on party lines, which has an impact on schools, amenities, and road improvement lists.

Bruce in Blacksburg (who is looking at a long day at the polls on Tuesday as an Officer of Elections)

[hbelkins]

Too many posts to quote, but it's a logical conclusion that being able to market your community as being on an Interstate is a plus. Saying "Located on the Mountain Parkway, a four-lane high-speed limited-access freeway" doesn't carry the same clout as saying "Located on Interstate 164." Even "Interstate-quality Mountain Parkway" doesn't quite cut it. Everyone covets a red-white-and-blue shield for its numbered freeway, and quite honestly, it's a cheap and easy economic development tool to convert Kentucky's four-lane parkways to Interstates.

Bruce in Blacksburg (who is looking at a long day at the polls on Tuesday as an Officer of Elections)

What offices are Virginians electing tomorrow? Kentucky, Mississippi, and one other state are electing governors. We elect our local officials in the midterms, and our state legislators in the presidential and midterm elections. There's a move here to change the state office elections to coincide with the presidential elections and eliminate an election cycle. I'm all for that. We did that with the local offices back in the late 1980s. We gave them a one-off five-year term to eliminate an election cycle. Prior to that, we had elections every four years. Now, we just have them three out of four years.

[LM117]

What offices are Virginians electing tomorrow?

The General Assembly is up for grabs, which is getting national attention.

[74/171FAN]

Please stick to roads. -Mark

[jakeroot]

The economic impact [of interstate designations] might depend a lot on how desperate a region is for growth/economic improvement. The western state DOTs that are most indifferent/resistant to the beauty of those red-white-and-blue shields (most notoriously Arizona's) seem to be the ones with already-high growth rates, and the focus is on handling existing growth rather than attracting new growth.

Maricopa County has been the fastest-growing county in the US for three straight years. To imply that they could grow even faster with interstates is specious at best.

[LM117]

VDOT is holding a public meeting in Chatham on November 14 to discuss improvements to US-29 between Lynchburg and Danville.

https://www.godanriver.com/news/local/a-main-artery-in-dan-river-region-vdot-looks-for/article_ba39fbe0-5912-50f0-95c7-a5732d752abb.html

Article this morning regarding that meeting.

https://www.godanriver.com/news/local/vdot-receives-public-input-on-corridor-improvements/article_cbdb8c09-6fd9-5f9a-94d9-6ac635f35e9c.html

Behind paywall:

CHATHAM – Chatham Town Manager Richard Cocke feels that the combination of businesses, industrial buildings and tractor trailers near the intersection of U.S. 29 and Toy Lane needs attention.

"That's a bottleneck right there at times,"  he said.

Cocke provided his input at Thursday's informational meeting regarding plans by the Virginia Department of Transportation to strategically improve the safety, efficiency and economic development potential along a 50-mile corridor stretching from Danville to Lynchburg.

A few residents showed up at VDOT's Chatham office in the first few minutes, but the traffic slowed within 30 minutes. One woman walked in, looked at the posters of road designs, and said "Well, none of this affects me,"  as she walked out.

Residents could examine a draft arterial preservation plan that addresses a variety of potential short-term and long-term improvements and changes along the corridor.

The study identifies emerging intersections, or those that already – or are projected – to have issues with safety, congestion or operation, three of which are located in Pittsylvania County: U.S. 29 business at E. Witt Road/Lawless Creek Road; U.S. 29 business at Malmaison Road; and U.S. 29 at Tightsqueeze Road.

At the meeting, VDOT representatives provided one solution to help alleviate congestion and reduce accidents at each of the three intersections: restricted crossing U-turns, or RCUT.

The whole purpose of an RCUT is to prevent vehicles from turning left out of a connecting route onto a main road like U.S. 29. Instead, they would turn right, drive a short distance and make a U-turn at a median opening with a loon, which is a designated U-turn space on the side of the road you're turning into.

David Cook, a VDOT transportation planner, said RCUTs are becoming more popular since they reduce crashes, especially fatal ones.

"They're proven to be safer,"  he said.

The suggested RCUT for Tightsqueeze Road, which would include a traffic signal, would cost upward of $10 million, while the RCUT at E. Witt/Lawless Creek Road without a traffic signal would cost more than $6 million.

In the longer term, VDOT proposes replacing two of the intersections – with E. Witt Road/Lawless Creek Road and Malmaison Road – with hybrid roundabouts.

Paula Jones, a VDOT spokeswoman, said resident input is invaluable, especially since they are the people who actually experience the roads on a consistent basis.

"We're broadcasting information and were also gaining information from the locals,"  added Rick Youngblood, the VDOT planner for the Lynchburg district, which includes Danville and Pittsylvania County.

VDOT segmented its survey of U.S. 29 into several different sections and intentionally left out the limited access portions near the towns of Chatham, Gretna and Hurt.

"Everything that's in the study is conceptual at this stage,"  Youngblood said.

Access management – the process of regulating the number of intersections and entrance ways to avoid congestion and potential collisions – is another major focus of the report. Youngblood said in Campbell County, attempts to consolidate and reduce the number turns off the main road actually has improved economic development efforts.

Ayers reports for the Register & Bee. Reach him at (434) 791-7981.

[sprjus4]

Tolls to increase for Downtown and Midtown tunnels in January

Tolls at the Downtown and Midtown tunnels will increase on New Year's Day.

Rates will increase by 13 cents during peak hours for E-ZPass drivers and 6 cents during the rest of the day, according to a news release from Elizabeth River Tunnels. The new rates will be $1.85 and $2.33.

Drivers of heavy vehicles will also see higher rates - a 49-cent increase during peak hours and an 18-cent increase during the rest of the day.

"This is part of the agreement between Skansa and Macquarie, and VDOT when they formed a private public partnership to build the tunnels in the first place,"  said Kathleen Morrison, a spokeswoman for Elizabeth River Tunnels.

The annual increase was built into the toll agreement to pay for the tunnels, she said.

At the beginning of 2019, tolls increased by 11 cents and 6 cents. Before that, tolls went up by 14 cents during peak hours and 8 cents in off-peak hours.

The release said E-ZPass customers always pay the lowest possible toll rates when using the Downtown and Midtown Tunnels, and can save more than 60% on tolls compared with drivers who choose the pay by plate option.

With those truck rates continuing to significantly rise annually it seems, wouldn't surprise me to see more trucks on the Beltway, notably those coming from NIT bound to US-58. Already see them a decent amount, along I-464 as well.

[sprjus4]

Cost for HOT lanes heats up

It's a hefty price tag to relieve congestion, but in the next 10 years when all the dust settles, the work is complete, and the billions of dollars have been spent, it is the hope of the region's leaders that people who drive through the region – in particular the Bowers Hill area – will be able to move around easier.

Between high occupancy travel lanes, interchange work at Bowers Hill, an expanded High Rise Bridge and Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, it will mean people who drive through that area to or from Suffolk will see a plethora of construction zones and delays associated with all of that.

But it doesn't even include the likely need for an expanded Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge -Tunnel, according to Linda T. Johnson, the Suffolk mayor and the chairwoman of the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission.

It held a joint meeting with the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization Thursday and learned of the $1.024 billion plan to put in those high occupancy travel, or HOT, lanes along a 45-mile stretch of I-64 from Bowers Hill near Suffolk to Jefferson Avenue in Newport News by 2025.

"The idea is to have a loop around Hampton Roads that connects all of the cities and everything together,"  Johnson said.

Vehicles with two or three passengers – depending on the proposal – would be allowed to use the HOT lanes as a method of easing congestion in the regular travel lanes. The price to use them would be based how busy the HOT lanes get. The busier the HOT lanes, the higher the cost to travel in them, according to HRTAC Executive Director Kevin Page, who said there is no downside to implementing it.

"It will give a reliable travel trip throughout the entire region of the HOT network and the system that's been proposed,"  Page said.

VDOT had been studying two alternatives to improve the Bowers Hill interchange, which includes the junction of Interstates 664, 64, 264, U.S. Routes 460, 58 and 13, and Jolliff Road with its preference to rebuild a majority of the interchange to separate mainline traffic between Route 58/I-264 and I-664/I-64 through the proposed interchange is estimated to cost about $450 million. That cost includes preliminary engineering, right-of-way and utilities and construction. Rebuilding that entire interchange, VDOT estimates, would cost $633.1 million.

On average, 121,800 vehicles use I-664 between the U.S. 460 ramps and the I-264/I-64 ramps daily, according to 2018 VDOT data, with projected traffic totals under each of its plans reaching more than 160,000 vehicles per day by 2040.

Page said HRTPO agreed to parameters last month on how the HOT lanes would be designed and constructed.

"In the feasibility of that, the Bowers Hill Interchange Study is likely to have some modifications to it,"  Page said, "that we can then start to integrate the HOT network through Bowers Hill and then up (Interstate) 664 heading toward the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel."

Johnson said a resolution that the HRTPO had planned to take up – but deferred action on – would have extended the HOT lane loop from Bowers Hill north on I-664 to College Drive and back to I-64 in the vicinity of the Hampton Coliseum.

That was the first step, she said.

The next is that the commission has to have a master tolling agreement, which it is working on with VDOT. That, according to Page, will determine how each will pool their resources and assure the public that the proper decisions will be made in its operation and development of the network. The agreement will also clarify where the money for the project will come from, how it will be spent and how future revenues from the HOT lanes will be allocated. The agreement is expected to be taken up at its Dec. 12 meeting.

"We're more concerned with through-traffic, getting people through, getting people moving, than we are the revenue,"  Johnson said. "We understand we need enough revenue to pay the bills, but we're not into making money as much as we are moving people."

Her other concern? Keeping the HOT lane tolls as low as possible, as she said the region's drivers would be hard-pressed to pay a higher toll.

"Our economy, and our citizens, they can't handle that,"  Johnson said. "So, it needs to be doable. It is for the citizens. It absolutely is, but getting to work on time is for the citizens too."

VDOT Commissioner Stephen Birch presented four HOT lane traffic and revenue options to the commission and the HRTPO – two of them that would allow for three passengers, HOT-3, and a pair that would allow for two, HOT-2.

Nick Donahue, state deputy secretary of transportation, said that while there is potential with HOT-3 lanes, the Hampton Roads region does not have the park-and-ride infrastructure for it to realize its potential and would be an added cost.

Barry Porter, a supervisor in Southampton County, said if that's the case, the commission and HRTPO should not spend a lot of time on it and move forward with one of the HOT-2 options.

With a $3.6 billion-plus price tag on expanding the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, the $409.6 million to expand the High Rise Bridge, in addition to adding HOT lanes and improving the Bowers Hill bottleneck, Johnson said it is imperative to make any tolling or other HOT lane costs as low as possible for the drivers who rely on the transportation network.

While the High Rise Bridge work is expected to be finished sometime in 2021, the rest of the work, at the earliest, will take anywhere from five years for the HRBT expansion, to at least eight or nine years for the HOT lane expansion.

"We're just going to have look at what works,"  Johnson said, "what is the least onerous on the citizens, and what pays the bills."

Interested to see how they would build a HO/T facility through a reconstructed Bowers Hill interchange, along with providing direct connectors to US-58 and I-264.

[hbelkins]

Kentucky may become a clone of Virginia when it comes to transportation agency governance and project selection.

Link to discussion on the Ohio Valley board.

[Beltway]

Kentucky may become a clone of Virginia when it comes to transportation agency governance and project selection.
Link to discussion on the Ohio Valley board.

I thought that the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet was basically similar to the Commonwealth Transportation Board....

But now I see that KYTC is the name of the state DOT... similar in structure as Maryland DOT but without mass transit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_Transportation_Cabinet

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is Kentucky's state-funded agency charged with building and maintaining federal highways and Kentucky state highways, as well as regulating other transportation related issues.

The Transportation Cabinet is led by the Kentucky Secretary of Transportation, who is appointed by the governor of Kentucky. The current Secretary is Greg Thomas, who was appointed by Republican Governor Matt Bevin.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet headquarters in Frankfort, Kentucky.
As of October 2012, KYTC maintains 27,562.975 miles (44,358.308 km) of roadways in the state.

Office of the Secretary
Department of Highways - responsible for designing and constructing state highways
Department of Aviation - responsible for promoting the use and safety of Kentucky's airports
Department of Rural and Municipal Aid - provides aid and assistance for local governments to Department of Vehicle Regulation - oversees regulations for the use and operation of motor vehicles.

[famartin]

Brand new sign along 28 North at 267:


Here's the old version:

[hbelkins]

^^^

The takeover of extruded panel signs continues.

[sprjus4]

Brand new sign along 28 North at 267:

Shocking to see that FHWA font making a return on the APL signage, especially in Virginia.

[Roadsguy]

Brand new sign along 28 North at 267:
[image]

Shocking to see that FHWA font making a return on the APL signage, especially in Virginia.

Is this an old contract or is there evidence (since the national reinstatement of its interim approval) of VDOT ditching Clearview for good?

[sprjus4]

Now, let's take down the hideous Clearview signage, and replace it with the standard and much better looking FHWA font.

[1995hoo]

Now, let's take down the hideous Clearview signage, and replace it with the standard and much better looking FHWA font.

Not happening. VDOT standard is to use Clearview.

https://www.virginiadot.org/business/resources/traffic_engineering/memos/TE-337_Clearview.pdf

[sprjus4]

Now, let's take down the hideous Clearview signage, and replace it with the standard and much better looking FHWA font.

Not happening. VDOT standard is to use Clearview.

https://www.virginiadot.org/business/resources/traffic_engineering/memos/TE-337_Clearview.pdf

My comment was both merely an opinion, and sarcastic.

And if it's their "standard" , then why wasn't it used on this particular signage?