THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 14, 1996 TAG: 9605140032
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
WHEN BRUCE HORNSBY opens the Virginia Beach Amphitheater tomorrow, one of the biggest unknowns will be traffic.
Officials are hopeful that amphitheater access roads are big enough to accommodate the traffic without delays.
If there are jams, they are expected to come at the end of the show. That's because concert-goers will probably arrive gradually - some people with lawn tickets will get there early to get good views - but leave en masse.
Still, no one knows for sure what will happen, so traffic engineers and others will watch the roadways and parking lots before and after tomorrow's Hornsby concert.
Signal timing will be analyzed; bottlenecks will be considered.
A traffic-impact study released last year predicted that the average attendance for an amphitheater event will be 10,000 people arrivingin about 4,500 vehicles carrying 2.2 people each.
As many as five sellout audiences of 20,000 are expected during the season. They are projected to arrive in about 6,700 vehicles occupied by about three people each.
The Hornsby show is not expected to sell out.
There are 5,100 parking spaces built around the site, and additional areas for overflow. Roads leading to the site are relatively congestion-free. So in the end, there is expected to be little slowdown during any concert event, according to Robert Gey, city traffic engineer for Virginia Beach.
``We're fairly confident,'' said Gey.
A parking charge of $1.50 has been added to the price of each ticket to avoid traffic congestion resulting from collecting parking fees at the gate. Adding the parking fee is also meant discourage concert-goers from parking sites other than the amphitheater.
Fans of public transportation, who want to avoid the hassle of driving and parking, will be out of luck.
Tidewater Regional Transit has been asked to provide no services to and from the amphitheater, according to TRT officials.
A single bus route runs down Princess Anne Road during the daytime, but no buses will be run in the evening when the concerts are scheduled to take place.
Bus turnarounds were built at the facility, but they are for large groups of ticket-holders, not scheduled public transportation.
Gey said some Oceanfront hotels were considering offering bus rides to and from the amphitheater for out-of-town guests. However, nothing had been formalized as of last week.
``It's hard to get people out of their automobile and into a trolley,'' Gey said.
When the amphitheater was proposed, a consultant's traffic analysis found that all the roads into the facility would provide good service.
``The major feeder roads are far under capacity right now,'' said Gey.
``Princess Anne Road runs a total of eight lanes, and traffic volumes haven't built up on that road,'' said Gey. Dam Neck Road runs a total of four lanes and also remains uncongested.
Sheriff's officers will be assisting throughout, observing traffic and manually operating traffic signals.
About 60 percent of the concert patrons are expected to arrive in the final hour before an event. To avoid any unforeseen traffic congestion, organizers recommend arriving early.
If any route to the amphitheater does back up, it will likely be Princess Anne Road, the location of one large entrance to the facility. Just over half the concert traffic is expected to arrive via Princess Anne.
Other entrances are off of Lands-town and Dam Neck roads. There is no access to the site off of Salem Road, though it runs by the amphitheater.
``We've analyzed it, and took the paths where people are expected to travel,'' said Gey. ``We think we have a good guess. And now we're going to go out there and see how close our guess was.
``But we know that the guess isn't going to be 100 percent accurate.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color map\The Virginian-Pilot
Where it's Located
Area Shown: Virginia Beach Amphitheater
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH AMPHITHEATER TRAFFIC by CNB