THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605100509
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
The highways that comprise the newly dubbed Hampton Roads Beltway are going to get new names, but state officials need more time to select the right ones.
The Commonwealth Transportation Board delayed a decision Thursday on renaming Hampton Roads' interstate highways, allowing more time for the cities involved to have a say.
Transportation officials want to rename the highways mostly to reroute vacation traffic headed for Virginia Beach. Vacationers who go through the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel would add 17 miles to a drive to Virginia Beach, but traffic at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel would be greatly reduced.
Renaming the roads could eliminate one of the region's more stupefying transportation quirks: Parts of I-64 East that actually go west.
Two plans are under consideration.
One would make I-64 go over the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel from the Peninsula, along the current I-664, connect with the current I-64, then follow Virginia Route 44 to the Oceanfront. The section of I-64 that goes into Norfolk would be renamed I-864.
The second plan would make I-64 go through Norfolk to 44, then to the Oceanfront. The rest of the current I-64 would become part of 664.
Staff consultants for the state transportation board favor the second plan, saying it would create a clear vacation route to Virginia Beach with minimal disruption to regional businesses.
Opponents say the first plan would be less complicated for drivers while more beneficial to tourism - and more likely to reduce traffic jams.
There are image issues as well. Virginia Beach and Norfolk would both prefer to be the ultimate destination on I-64, the region's dominant interstate.
Regardless of what is done, some board members say motorists still might outsmart them - by looking at a map and realizing the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel is still the shortest route to the Oceanfront.
``I have enough confidence in the traveling public that they can look at a map,'' said Zeanious L. Newcomb, a board member from Fredericksburg. ``We're going to have to educate them that going the long way might actually be the shortest route because of the traffic jams.''
The Commonwealth Transportation Board will consider the issue again in June. Once a decision is made, it could still take two years and cost about $1 million for the signs to be changed. by CNB