FHWA waivers for Interstates and non-compliant roads

[Pink Jazz]

At City-Data, I am currently in an argument with another user about the westbound tube on the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel.  Initially the thread was about which highways in Hampton Roads would a speed limit increase would work.  One user suggested increasing the HRBT speed limit to 65 mph.  However, I pointed out that the westbound tube in the HRBT is substandard for an Interstate, thus any speed limit increase would not be appropriate for the facility.  I mentioned that non-compliant roadways require waivers to get Interstate designations.

Now, one of those users is asking me to provide proof if any waiver was ever issued for the HRBT.  Since FHWA waivers are generally not public record, I posted a link of the Interstate standards article on Wikipedia, which all but confirms that highways must either meet Interstate standards or get a waiver from the FHWA to get signed as an Interstate.  However, that particular user still refuses to accept this fact and continues to ask me to provide proof of a waiver for signing the HRBT as an Interstate.

I need some help here: can non-compliant roads be designated as an Interstate without a waiver from the FHWA?  The only other scenario I can see is that the facility may have been grandfathered from an older Interstate standard.

[NE2]

It was probably grandfathered, since it was part of the IHS since the 1950s.

[Mapmikey]

The I-64 corridor from I-664 Hampton east to I-564 was an FHWA-approved interstate when the road was still in the early design phases by 1968.  When I-664 was requested by Virginia in 1968, the FHWA wanted Virginia to drop this segment of I-64 from the interstate system, not because the existing HRBT (the WB lanes today) was substandard but solely on the basis of not enough interstate mileage to go around to have all of I-664 included.  Details can be found here - http://www.roadstothefuture.com/I664_History.html

The Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel System was placed into the interstate system by the CTB in Feb 1959 - see pg. 9 at http://www.ctb.virginia.gov/meetings/minutes_pdf/CTB-02-1959-01.pdf

Mapmikey