Hampton Roads meet - March 22, 2014

[oscar]

I'll be driving down in my Prius, leaving D.C. around 6am Saturday morning (still catching up on things from the St. Louis meet, so a Friday arrival in Norfolk is not possible).

My car will have room for three passengers, and will have my E-ZPass transponder installed.

[mtantillo]

I have some extra E-ZPasses if a driver doesn't have. 

[hbelkins]

Long day, but I'm in Chesapeake now. Just hoping I can stay up to watch the UK game.

[froggie]

Go to bed...catch it tomorrow.  That way, you can catch breakfast with me in the morning.

[cpzilliacus]

I'll be driving down in my Prius, leaving D.C. around 6am Saturday morning (still catching up on things from the St. Louis meet, so a Friday arrival in Norfolk is not possible).

My car will have room for three passengers, and will have my E-ZPass transponder installed.

I'll race you.  <smile>

And you will win.  I am probably taking 301 to 17 to 64.

See you there.  Drive carefully.

[Takumi]

Just got home, had a great time. It was great meeting everyone and seeing the people I've met before again.

Between two of the stops, my boss texted me asking if I could cover for someone. It'd be a bit hard being two hours away, and not near my car at the time!

My route to the restaurant today: VA 144 → VA 36 → VA 156 → VA 10 → US 258 → US 17 → VA 164 → US 58 (VA 337A westbound was closed at the end of the MLK) → US 17 → VA 337A → a couple wrong turns in Portsmouth → VA 239 → I-264 → US 17 → VA 196 → US 13/460 → I-464 → I-64 → Greenbrier. My route home was simply Greenbrier to Military Highway all the way to its end, then onto 13/58/460 until I got off at 460 towards home.

[Alps]

Didn't have a chance to attend this meet, but at least I held a meet of my own! The meet location was Panda House in Springfield, MA. From there, the tour proceeded under the concrete arch on Main St., by where the state-name I-91 shield used to be, then drove the old-school US 5 freeway down the west shore of the Connecticut River. We checked out the MA 57 stub, then headed to an old state-line sign and border monument where the meet photo was taken. (Side note: I did not actually know about this sign, but the opportunity presented itself.) From there, we went into CT to look at the CT 190 freeway-let that was once planned as a full four-lane facility, then headed back up into Springfield, eventually ending up on US 5 north as it merges into I-91 (there's a great view of the 5 bridge from that perspective). We continued north to MA 116, and drove that from the bottom up to the old truss bridge in Chicopee, currently closed but under rehabilitation (fortunately instead of replacement). That was our second tour stop. The meet then headed around to the other side of 116, through town, and, dodging a St. Patrick's Day Parade (hey, where have we had that happen before?), clinched I-391 on the way back into Springfield. The tour finished with a sweeping panorama of downtown from the I-91 SB ramp to I-291. We then parted ways and continued on. My half of the tour checked out the old Merritt Parkway tollbooth on the way south.

Incidentally, this was a two-person birthday meet.

[froggie]

Thank you all for coming...we wound up with 13 total (including Brian LeBlanc!).  The "official tour" took us to several vantage points of the US 17/Dominion Blvd project, which is replacing the "Steel Bridge" with a 4-lane 95ft-high fixed span toll bridge, and also upgrading US 17 to freeway (sans the toll bridge) from VA 168 south to VA 165/Cedar Rd.  From there, we went into Portsmouth (via the Jordan Bridge) to view where the MLK Freeway extension (to be a VA 164 extension) will connect into I-264.  We then proceeded through the Midtown Tunnel to a small Norfolk park overlooking some of the Midtown Tunnel construction, where we took the group photo.

After that, we basically split.  Some went back to Chesakeape to get their cars and continue their own touring, while several of us proceeded through Norfolk on a sign scavenger hunt, through the VA 337/Hampton Blvd railroad underpass construction, a brief stop on the Navy Base, and up to Fort Monroe to search for the old ferry landing.  Several of us then got together for dinner afterwards.

All in all, a good day.  Looking forward to seeing several of the attendees at today's Delmarva meet in a few hours.

[Mapmikey]

It was nice to meet everybody yesterday.  I had a very nice time touring around the Tidewater area.  For the NC Officials I gave out, I only downloaded the map side unless the insets were on the reverse.  If you want to obtain the back sides of other issues, I got these from this website: http://www2.lib.unc.edu/dc/ncmaps/

A few ad hoc questions/discussions came up during the meet here are some definitive answers...

Where was the Ferry Landing at Old Point Comfort?
The link below shows a picture of the wharf, to the east of the hotel (2nd place we looked).  Incidentally 1942 Topo map shows no road along the seawall facing HRBT and 1944 Topo does show it. The 1958 Topo and 1963 aerial view shows nothing to suggest ferry landing was west of the hotel.  Incidentally, the Willoughby Spit landing was on the Willoughby Bay side essentially due south of the Exit 272 ramps from I-64 EB.  Still looking for more definitive proof...Esso maps of the Hampton Roads area are detailed enough but I only have 1963.


http://www.cardcow.com/279311/old-point-comfort-wharf-monroe-virginia/?gcsct=0ChMI8IKHlv-ovQIVifHnCh0mSAAAGAMgASgA


When was HRBT twinned? 
According to Kozel's well-researched site, the second (EB) structure opened in June 1976.  Tolls were dropped at that time.

When were tolls dropped from Midtown and Downtown tunnels?
Midtown (opened Sept '62) stopped tolling in Aug '86
Downtown (opened May '52) stopped tolling in Aug '86; second tube opened March '87

When did the London Blvd interchange with US 58 west of Midtown tunnel open?
Originally US 58 just ran to High St along what is now VA 337 ALT.  The March 1968 CTB shows the changes to put US 58 and VA 141 onto London Blvd.  The 1963 aerial of the area definitely shows no London Blvd interchange or construction thereof.



Mapmikey

[Mapmikey]

Two more...

Was the 2-lane bridge paralleling US 60 to the north at Diamond Springs Rd ever part of US 60?

The 1944 Topo shows US 60 using its current alignment through here and no road at all paralleling it to the north.  So I can upgrade my answer from probably not to definitely not...

Wish we had thought of it earlier, but the US 13 Ferry Rd that went from Diamond Springs Rd then underneath both of these bridges appears to be drivable all the way to the waterfront still based on satellite and 2007 GMSV.  The railroad berth for the ferry is still there and the cars either used the same pier or one immediately next to it...

How about the Ocean View Amusement Park?
Was located at the end of Granby St and was built around the start of the 20th century.  Slated to be torn down in the mid-70s but made it long enough to appear in 2 movies - "Rollercoaster" (Henry Fonda) and "The Death of Ocean View Park" (Mike Connors) which included the actual 1978 destruction of the 1927 wooden rollercoaster and the park was removed.  Details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_View_Amusement_Park


Mapmikey

[cpzilliacus]

Thank you all for coming...we wound up with 13 total (including Brian LeBlanc!).  The "official tour" took us to several vantage points of the US 17/Dominion Blvd project, which is replacing the "Steel Bridge" with a 4-lane 95ft-high fixed span toll bridge, and also upgrading US 17 to freeway (sans the toll bridge) from VA 168 south to VA 165/Cedar Rd.  From there, we went into Portsmouth (via the Jordan Bridge) to view where the MLK Freeway extension (to be a VA 164 extension) will connect into I-264.  We then proceeded through the Midtown Tunnel to a small Norfolk park overlooking some of the Midtown Tunnel construction, where we took the group photo.

Adam, thanks for researching and organizing this meet.  Very informative and fun.

We only drove over the South Norfolk Jordan Bridge, but that was a highlight (and maybe high point) of the tour.  It was more impressive "in person" than in the images I have seen of it. 

Thanks to Oscar for driving - and to my amazement, I actually fit in the rear seat of his car!

[Takumi]

We only drove over the South Norfolk Jordan Bridge, but that was a highlight (and maybe high point) of the tour.  It was more impressive "in person" than in the images I have seen of it. 

Indeed it was. I took several pictures while on it, mostly looking over the sides. They turned out very well.

Incidentally, the pieces of VA 337 we drove were about half of what I need to clinch it. Now I need from VA 191 to the west end of 337A and the downtown Norfolk sections.

[hbelkins]

Yes, thank you for hosting. I will post a full trip report at a later date.

On a very sad note, our cat Mouse died today while I was on the way home. It happened while I was out of cell phone service range between Claypool Hill and Grundy on US 460. Her condition was one reason I skipped out on the tour portion of the Delmarva meet and tried to push a bit farther west than I'd originally planned on Sunday. I didn't do any of the planned exploration I had planned for the return trip this morning once I learned her condition had deteriorated greatly between last night and this morning, but I still didn't make it home in time.

[oscar]

Thanks to Oscar for driving - and to my amazement, I actually fit in the rear seat of his car!

My Prius has a lot of legroom in back.  Maybe enough to hold suspects, should the Arlington County police ever decide to use some Prius patrol cars (not beyond the realm of possibility, considering how the county government is so madly in love with white Priuses).

My thanks also to Froggie for organizing the meet. 

On the way there, I clinched VA 143 (needed only the part in Hampton).  After the "official" tour was over, I skipped the optional sign-scavenger tour, plus other activities that would've put me way past my bedtime, to get a head start on getting to the Eastern Shore ahead of the Delmarva meet the following day (details to follow in that thread).

[oscar]

Here are two of the three group photos I took, near the Midtown Tunnel, at the Hampton Roads meet.  As I expected, the other photo got seriously overexposed, but no loss as it was otherwise similar to the first photo below.





From left to right: 

Michael Temme-Solfer [mts83], Keith Thomas, Michael Elmore [Takumi], Daniel Greenstein, Brian LeBlanc, Mike Tantillo [mtantillo], Mike Pruett [MDRoads], Laura Bianca-Pruett [Laura], H.B. Elkins [hbelkins], C.P. Zilliacus [cpzilliacus], Mike Roberson [Mapmikey], Adam Froehlig [froggie, kneeling[, Oscar Voss [oscar]

[agentsteel53]

takumi is Michael Elmore.  (he's identified himself by name in another caption for the Oct '13 Richmond meet, so I'm okay with posting his personal info.)

[Takumi]

To the left of me in the photo are Michael Temme-Soifer (mts83, all the way on the left) and Keith Thomas (just left of me), and Daniel Greenstein is on my right.

The camera usually hates me, but I don't look derpy in the top photo. The bottom photo is typical for me.

[oscar]

One and done: A phrase often used to describe John Calipari's recruits for the University of Kentucky's basketball team. Also applicable to the 2013-14 team's tournament appearance if it keeps laying eggs in big games against good opponents.

Now that the UK men are in the Final Four, time to amend your .sig file?

[hbelkins]

Probably. 

[hbelkins]

Here is a quick assortment of photos that I put online from my trip. It's publicly accessible.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152305390341469.1073741826.275641381468&type=1