THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 12, 1996 TAG: 9607120505
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 74 lines
Three downtown streets will close for good Saturday, challenging commuters and business patrons as workers prepare for construction of the MacArthur Center mall.
Drivers are still trying to adjust to the closing earlier this month of seven parking lots within the mall's 17-acre construction site.
City officials have some advice to help motorists avoid the congestion that may result from the street closures, and they've added a route to the city's free shuttle bus system to accommodate those who must now park farther from their business or shopping destinations.
As of Saturday, traffic will be permanently barred on Market Street between Cumberland Street and Monticello Avenue, Bank Street between City Hall Avenue and Freemason Street, and Court Street north of City Hall Avenue.
The mall will eventually stand where these streets now crisscross.
City officials recommend that drivers passing into or through the area allow extra time because the closures may create congestion during peak periods.
Motorists most affected by the street closures will be those driving toward the Granby Street district and those taking Market Street west to the FreemasonStreet area, said Dennis Richardson, manager of design and construction services for the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. These drivers should use City Hall Avenue or Charlotte Street. Richardson also advised that drivers who usually exit I-264 west at City Hall Avenue and take St. Paul's Boulevard to Brambleton Avenue use the Brambleton exit instead. Many who usually travel this route are headed for the Medical Center complex, the Midtown Tunnel or other points in that area.
Access to the Market Street garage will continue to be from Monticello Avenue.
On July 1, the city closed seven gravel parking lots that lay within the MacArthur Center construction site, assigning monthly parking customers space in the Freemason Street and Market Street parking garages and referring short-term parkers to these facilities or to the Plume Street lot and elsewhere.
At the same time, the city added a route to its free downtown transport system. The new shuttle run loops from the city parking lots at Virginia Beach Boulevard and Monticello Avenue to Waterside and back.
The shuttle runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays. During peak periods, from 7 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 7 p.m., the buses leave every 12 minutes; they depart every 24 minutes during the other hours of operation.
The shuttle will stop at or near existing TRT stops and elsewhere, as needed.
Two other free shuttle routes accommodate parkers from downtown to the Harbor Park lots and the new city parking lot near Cedar Grove cemetery.
Patrons of Kirn Memorial Library and MacArthur Memorial may now have their parking tickets validated at either facility to be honored by any short-term lots.
Among upcoming changes:
Sometime this fall, the intersection of Cumberland Street and City Hall Avenue will be closed so Virginia Power can complete utility work. A temporary intersection will be provided at St. Paul's Boulevard and Plume Street.
Later in the fall, City Hall Avenue will be reopened, but Cumberland Street will be closed to through traffic.
Other temporary street closures are likely in October, when the Virginia Department of Transportation begins a $17 million renovation of St. Paul's Boulevard.
Also this fall, work on the downtown campus of Tidewater Community College will require some traffic pattern changes on Granby Street. ILLUSTRATION: RICHARD L. DUNSTON
The Virginian-Pilot
On Monticello Avenue, a parking garage is readied for the new mall.
SHUTTLE ROUTE AND STREET CLOSINGS
Map
KEN WRIGHT
The Virginian-Pilot by CNB