THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9512290315
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: 1995: YEAR IN REVIEW
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
During morning rush hour June 1, commuters on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway leaned on their horns and waved ``V'' for victory as they sailed through the toll booth lanes - free of tolls at last.
After 28 years of quarters and dimes ruling their work commute, these drivers were among the first to experience the pleasure of cruising through the toll plaza or past an automatic toll collector without stopping.
Tolls had just been lifted earlier that morning at 12:01 a.m., thanks to General Assembly legislation passed earlier in the year.
Later in the day, Gov. George F. Allen presided over a ceremony where he removed the last ``STOP Pay Toll'' sign and tossed it into a Virginia Department of Transportation truck. Mills E. Godwin Jr. was the Virginia governor who led the ribbon-cutting Dec. 1, 1967, to open the expressway, which cut driving time to Norfolk in half for some commuters.
Massive traffic jams that were predicted after the tolls came off never materialized. And now, the toll plaza canopy has been taken down and almost all other reminders of tolls have been removed from the expressway on-and-off ramps.
More than 1 billion vehicles had passed through the toll lanes, raising more than $195 million over the years. Before they were removed, tolls paid not only for the expressway construction, built at an original cost of $34 million, but also for some major additions and repairs to the road.
- Mary Reid Barrow ILLUSTRATION: John Corbitt, a Virginian-Pilot staff artist, was on his way
home from work just after midnight on June 1 when he became the last
person to pay the 25-cent toll on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk
Expressway.
Staff photo by
CHRIS REDDICK
by CNB