THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 1, 1995 TAG: 9506010407
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL AND SHAWN M. TERRY, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
At 12:01 a.m. today, the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway stopped demanding commuters' change.
The tolls were ordered off as of today after a game of political one-up-manship that began more than a year ago.
The end came unceremoniously, with an announcement over a loudspeaker telling the toll-takers to cease collecting.
And in a tunnel below the toll plaza, the once-endless clinking of coins rushing down metal tubes to the vaults gave way to silence.
The commute on the toll road linking Norfolk with its resort neighbor was free for the first time since it opened in 1967.
The toll road opened on Dec. 1, 1967, at a cost of $34 million. At that time, the 12.1 mile road was seen as a blessing by most commuters, whose driving time from Norfolk to Virginia Beach was cut in half.
In the road's first year of operation, 10 million vehicles paid their tolls. By 1993, 62 million a year were passing through the toll plazas.
All in all, more than 1 billion vehicles have used the road, paying $195,781,696 in tolls through April 1995, according to state figures.
The toll road's transition to freeway is to be quick and - all involved hope - painless.
State transportation officials said it would take about two weeks to remove the toll equipment and plaza canopy. Crews were to work 24 hours a day to revamp the road.
The work began immediately after the tolls ended, when construction crews started removing toll equipment from blocked-off center lanes, and covering toll equipment in the eight active lanes.
The construction should be finished by Nov. 1, according to R.W. McLendon, assistant resident engineer for the state. The toughest part of the process will involve regrading the highway around the current toll plaza, eliminating a 6- to 8-foot crest that had served to make the toll booths more visible to motorists.
The 26 automatic coin collectors at five different exits will be removed as well. Their electricity was cut off this morning.
While the plaza is being torn down, state police plan to heavily enforce the 40-mph speed limit in the work zone. In addition to the two to three troopers who normally patrol the route, an extra eight troopers will be stationed around the toll plaza to make sure traffic flows smoothly and safely.
Violators could be fined as much as $250 plus court costs for speeding in the work zone.
Despite an increased presence, State Police First Sgt. Roger Farr said Wednesday that he is certain there will be an increase in accidents as a result of the construction and inattentive driving.
Gov. George F. Allen is expected to hold a press conference this morning at the toll plaza, where he is scheduled to pull one of the ``Stop Pay Toll'' signs from the plaza and toss it into the back of a pickup.
Allen was the last Virginia politician to get involved in ending the toll. In March, Allen asked the General Assembly to move up the effective date of the toll's removal from the Fourth of July weekend to June 1. Allen said he wanted the earlier date to avoid traffic congestion during the holiday.
The Republican governor's proposal amended a bill by Democratic Sen. Clarence A. Holland of Virginia Beach, who sponsored legislation that would have removed the tolls on July 1. In doing so, state Republicans won back some credit for killing the tolls.
A year earlier, Democrats, including Sen. Holland, killed a GOP-sponsored bill to remove the tolls by Jan. 1 of this year.
The road had paid for itself and then some. Most of the excess money was being used for road maintenance as well as major construction projects along its length.
Last June, the road had $32 million in its trust fund and just $6 million left to pay its debt. And because politicians in 1967 said that the toll would be removed once the road was paid for, today's legislators latched on to the issue.
The toll plaza was a scene of chaos and sadness on Wednesday. Radio stations used the opportunity to pay tolls for listeners, plaster their promotional stickers on the coin collectors, and hand out tollhouse cookies.
Hours before the road became free, construction workers labored in the middle lanes removing some of the ``Exact Change Only'' signs.
Behind the toll plaza headquarters, state transportation employees pushed cart after cart of now-worthless toll tickets into the basement of the toll plaza, where they will eventually be destroyed. Motorists bought equally worthless toll tokens, more for keepsakes than currency.
In the hallways underneath the toll plaza, Veronica Eley sat lulled for the last time by the clanking coins tumbling through metal tubes into the vaults below.
``Hey, Veronica,'' a co-worker shouted as Eley, 24, stood guard for the last time outside of a room in which two auditors tallied $15,000 in morning rush-hour profit.
``It's been nice out here,'' Eley said. ``I'm going to miss these people.''
Eley has been a part-time toll collector for eight months. On Monday, she'll begin work at Sears.
Mark McMullen, an electronics technician for the toll road, started to get teary-eyed after his picture was snapped by a friend of 12 years.
``He was one of the first technicians to start working on the toll plaza in 1967,'' McMullen said of the photographer, Floyd Henahan, an original engineer with the Toll Road. ``He's a good man.''
McMullen and Henahan talked of their families, soccer games at Green Run High School and work. Wednesday morning - about 12 hours before the tolls came off - they were already planning a reunion.
Vina B. Clifton has been with the toll road from the beginning, eventually becoming its accountant.
She recalled looking out her window to see Mount Trashmore being built and remembered the days when bored toll collectors would peer anxiously towards Norfolk, hoping that a car would come into view.
Despite being ready to retire a month ago, Clifton stayed on to help close out the books.
``We've gone from one phase to another,'' she said recently in her cramped office.
``You know what it feels like?'' she said. ``It feels like somebody has died. It's sad really. Very sad. But I'll just go home and play in my yard. And if I ever drive by this place again, I'll think about the good times. ILLUSTRATION: BILL ABOURJILIE/Staff file
December 1, 1967
Then - Gov. Mills E. Godwin Jr. led the ribbon cutting to open the
Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway.
[Color Photo]
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/Staff
June 1, 1995
W. Wayne White, district operations engineer for VDOT, holds a
no-toll sign that will be posted along Route 44.
by CNB