Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 14, 1995 TAG: 9508140097
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MANASSAS LENGTH: Medium
For more than two hours after Friday night's Jimmy Buffett show, the massive dirt lot at the Washington area's newest and largest concert arena looked like a bad day on the Capital Beltway: headlights and tail lights crawling along or at a standstill.
``This is unbelievably bad,'' said John Mills, 35, after sitting in his minivan for more than 50 minutes and not moving an inch. ``This is just terrible.''
Just as critics predicted, the two-lane country roads in western Prince William County that surround the site are easily overwhelmed by thousands of cars. Interstate 66 becomes clogged before and after the concerts, and on nights with especially large crowds, just getting out of the parking lot can be an ordeal.
Another problem, concertgoers say, has been the muddy fields they must slog through to get to their cars after rainstorms.
``Coming out was just a disaster,'' said Donna Baker of Centreville, who attended a recent Reba McIntyre concert. ``There were spots where you were walking in deep mud, and we literally sat for about 40 minutes [in the parking lot] without our row moving at all.''
Pavilion officials acknowledge there have been problems and say they are working to improve the situation. They have hired off-duty police officers to direct traffic and have made part of an access road one-way after concerts. And they have put truckloads of gravel on the dirt to help ease the mud problem.
But Mike Burgess, the pavilion's general manager, said some people are exaggerating the delays.
``When you have a large attendance, that's going to happen,'' he said of the backups. ``There's always that person who got out in five minutes, and then there's the person stuck at the back of the lot. Ninety-five percent of the time, there's not a problem.''
Tracy Glisson doesn't buy that.
She said it took her 2 hours and 45 minutes to drive from her home on Capitol Hill to the Cranberries concert at Nissan on Wednesday. Getting out was even worse, Glisson said. She sat in her car for 90 minutes before exiting the parking lot.
``It's an incredible facility in a gorgeous natural setting,'' Glisson said. ``But there's really no way to enjoy the evening when the drive time is so bad. I will not be attending another show until they get that solved.''
Before the Buffett concert Friday, westbound traffic on I-66 was backed up 10 miles from Gainesville to the Beltway. Prince William police Lt. Bill Hunt said such tie-ups have been common since the amphitheater opened in June.
``The biggest problem is that people don't leave in time,'' he said. ``If I was in D.C., I'd plan on leaving home by 5:30'' for an 8 p.m. concert.
Hunt and other officials said traffic conditions won't improve until the roads feeding into the pavilion area are widened.
Another lane in each direction will be added to I-66 next year, but plans don't call for widening the pavilion's two main access roads for several years.
``We have too many cars and too little roads,'' Hunt said.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.