ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 13, 1997 TAG: 9704140008
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
It was unusual, and the highway department didn't like it. But it's more efficient than a full cloverleaf.
Believe it or not, the left-exit flyover to the airport didn't start out to be the test of nerves and reflexes it is today.
In the mid-1970s, city engineers had considered building a full cloverleaf interchange, with all right-lane exits, to handle Valley View-area traffic.
But traffic studies soon showed such a plan to be inefficient, said Richard Burrow, then the city's traffic engineer. Most of the traffic would have used just two of the cloverleaf's loops, crowding them to overcapacity, he said.
Instead, Burrow recommended a right-lane flyover that would carry traffic over Hershberger. This would have allowed them to remove one loop of the cloverleaf and to build instead a left-hand turn onto Valley View Boulevard from westbound Hershberger.
But, while safe and simple to navigate, this option would have been expensive, he said. They decided instead to build a less expensive flyover from the left lane, at the same time getting rid of the fourth loop.
The state highway department fought the idea when city engineers presented the plan in Richmond, Burrow said. But after an all-day planning session, the groups compromised: The design left room for a fourth loop ramp, in case the flyover proved inefficient or unsafe.
LENGTH: Short : 37 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. FILE 1979/THE ROANOKE TIMES. Back in 1979, airportby CNBaccess was by way of two-lane right in photo above) B&W. 2. ERIC
BRADY/THE ROANOKE TIMES. Now, a left-exit flyover (foreground in
photo at right) takes vehicles to the new airport terminal. color.
MEGAN SCHNABEL