Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 28, 1993 TAG: 9307280064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They likely will have to wait five or six years for relief from the congestion at one of the city's busiest interchanges.
The only solution to the traffic snarls is reconstruction of the interchange so it can handle more vehicles, City Manager Bob Herbert said.
A major reconfiguration of the interchange will cost millions - highway money the city doesn't have now, Herbert said.
The city has committed its share of state urban highway funds - $5.3 million a year - for other projects, such as the Peters Creek Road extension project, for the next six years.
The city's highway funds are committed through fiscal 1997-98. The earliest the Elm Avenue/I-581 project could be funded would be fiscal 1998-99, Herbert said.
Up to 30,000 vehicles a day travel on Elm Avenue between I-581 and Jefferson Street. Approximately 60,000 vehicles travel on I-581.
The interchange is simply not large enough to handle the volume, Herbert said.
There are four intersections with traffic signals on the quarter-mile section of Elm Avenue between Jefferson Street and I-581. Upgrading the traffic signals at an estimated cost of $100,000 won't help, Herbert said. Changing the timing and better synchronizing the signals also would not ease the congestion and would cause hazardous conditions on I-581, he said.
City Councilman James Harvey, who had asked city officials to determine if anything could be done, said Tuesday there apparently was no way to solve the problem quickly.
"I've got to take their word on it," Harvey said. "If they say there is nothing more they can do to better synchronize the lights, I have to accept it because I am not an engineer."
After the city finishes the Peters Creek Road extension, Harvey said, it needs to focus on the Elm Avenue project and the Hershberger Road and Aviation Drive interchange.
Congestion on Elm Avenue can't be solved with traffic signals without creating intolerable delays on Jefferson Street, Williamson Road and other side streets, in addition to I-581, Herbert said.
"There is just far more traffic than the roadway can handle," said Bob Bengtson, city traffic engineer.
The city has studied the possibility of using police officers to direct traffic during rush hours.
But police have concluded it would be difficult to coordinate the officers and assigning them to the intersection would strain their manpower.
A minimum of nine officers would be needed four hours a day (7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m.), Herbert said.
The officers would need their own two-way radio frequency to coordinate the traffic flow. It also would be hazardous for the officers and would not solve the problem, Herbert said.
Harvey said he wasn't surprised that city officials discarded the proposal for using police officers. "I had heard that the use of officers doesn't necessarily speed up the traffic flow," he said.
Herbert said there are several alternatives for the reconstruction of the interchange that would have to be considered individually, or in combination with others, to relieve the congestion. They include:
Widen Elm Avenue to spread out the waiting vehicles.
Construct loop-ramps (partial cloverleaf interchanges) on the east side of I-581 to eliminate the traffic signal at the northbound ramp.
Construct an elevated bypass for through traffic, avoiding congestion at the traffic signals and shortening the delay for vehicles turning on to and off of Elm.
Reconfigure the interchange to create an "urban interchange" with one traffic signal at the center rather than two traffic signals at each ramp.
City officials and transportation planners are drafting a long-range thoroughfare plan, and Elm Avenue is expected to have a high priority, Herbert said.
After the plan has been finished, he said, he will ask City Council to request that the Virginia Department of Transportation include the Elm Avenue project in the city's six-year highway plan.
Construction crews are replacing sections of deteriorated concrete on the driving surface of the Elm Avenue bridge. After the concrete has been repaired, a new overlay will be applied.
While the bridge is being repaired, Herbert said, the city will repair the vehicle-detection equipment - the sensors that tell the traffic signals that vehicles are waiting - underneath the driving surface. This might produce a small improvement to the traffic flow, he said.
by CNB