THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 22, 1995 TAG: 9506220453
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Reducing chronic traffic delays at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel might be as simple as changing the names of local interstate highways.
For the city of Norfolk, however, the issue involves more than a moniker - it's a matter of staying on motorists' minds.
A consultant working for the state Transportation Department has recommended changing the route numbers of several local highways.
The move, he predicts, would reduce traffic congestion in the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel by up to 20 percent. Merely changing the names, the consultant maintains, would divert more traffic to the Monitor Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel and make getting to the Oceanfront a little easier for tourists.
Four different plans for name changes to relieve congestion were presented Wednesday to the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission by Philip A. Shucet, an assistant vice president of Michael Baker Jr., Inc., which is analyzing regional traffic patterns.
Under the consultant's proposal:
Interstate 664 and Route 44 would be renamed Interstate 64.
Interstate 64, from Hampton to Route 44 in Norfolk, would be changed to Interstate 864.
The I-64 and I-864 loop would then be known as the Hampton Roads Beltway.
Interstate 264, which runs through Chesapeake, Norfolk and Portsmouth, would remain unchanged.
By creating a beltway using the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, Beach-bound traffic would be encouraged to bypass the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, the consultant said.
But the suggestion was contentious even before it was presented. Changing the names of local interstates would require new destination signs along the highways outside Hampton Roads.
Norfolk prefers a plan that would continue to have I-64 heading into town and would name the beltway I-664.
That would leave Norfolk as the final destination on highway signs along I-64 from Richmond. The other plan, which has the support of the consultant and Virginia Beach officials, would replace ``Norfolk'' with ``Virginia Beach'' on those signs.
The proposal was sent to the executive committee of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, where the alternatives will be studied.
On Tuesday night, by a vote of 8-0, the Chesapeake City Council approved changing I-664 to I-64, the option Norfolk opposes. No other Hampton Roads city has voted on renaming the roads.
Public hearings on the proposals will be held throughout Hampton Roads sometime in September.
The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel is well over capacity. An estimated 76,900 vehicles used the bridge-tunnel daily in 1994. The Monitor Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel saw an average of 29,400 vehicles per day last year, below its capacity.
Motorists using the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel faced delays of 15 minutes or more because of congestion on nearly half the days in 1994. That was up dramatically from the previous year, the consultant said, and the number of half-hour delays nearly doubled over that time.
The Beltway route to the Beach would be 17 miles longer than the direct route, but would be shorter in time and aggravation because there would be no congestion, the consultant said. ILLUSTRATION: Map
STAFF
NAME GAME
SOURCE: Hampton Roads Crossing Study
by CNB