THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609140090
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 09 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 60 lines
The city is involved in a series of studies to determine how to best to keep cars off the three-mile stretch of resort Oceanfront, yet move masses of people along crowded streets during the peak of the tourist season.
One such study is being done by BRW, a Florida and Minnesota-based consulting firm with expertise in solving transportation and parking problems nationwide, city Planning Department spokesman Dale Castellow told the Resort Area Advisory Commission Thursday.
The inquiry is part of a larger scale study of regional transportation disorders and is being conducted under a contract with the Tidewater Regional Transit system.
The Virginia Beach focus is to determine how to increase trolley ridership along Atlantic and Pacific avenues, from 40th Street to Rudee Inlet and beyond to the Virginia Marine Science Museum.
``We want to look at public-private cooperation, like the Entertainment Express,'' said Castellow, referring to a trolley service started this summer by a group of Rudee Inlet and Laskin Road restaurant operators. That service was highly successful, he said.
BRW also is studying the feasibility of starting a light rail service between the Oceanfront and downtown Norfolk, Castellow added. However, the Virginia Beach City Council wants the scope to be expanded to include possible routes to the regional airport and the naval base in Norfolk.
In addition, said Castellow, the council wants the consulting firm to analyze the cost-effectiveness of putting the light rail service above grade - or above ground level. This would add millions of dollars to the startup cost, he added.
Also under study is a Virginia Beach transportation center, a central gathering point for motorists coming to the Oceanfront. As envisioned by city planners, motorists could park their cars and board trolleys to destinations all along the beachfront.
To fund the inquiry, said Castellow, the city is seeking a $1 million federal grant, which is now before Congress.
Castellow told advisory commissioners that the resort routes were the most profitable of all TRT routes in Virginia Beach. The most profitable of all was the Boardwalk route, which was discontinued several years ago because the bulky vehicles created havoc with heavy pedestrian traffic on the walkway.
City officials are looking for alternate means of Boardwalk transportation, such as the tram-car system now employed at the Virginia Marine Science Museum on General Booth Boulevard.
The Boardwalk is about to undergo a major change, beginning Oct. 1, when the Army Corps of Engineers begins the first phase of the $103 million Hurricane Protection project designed to protect the beachfront, from Rudee Inlet to 89th Street, from major ocean-borne storms. Work will start at 8th Street and end at Rudee Inlet and will entail doubling the width of the Boardwalk and widening the beach.
The thinking among city tourism planners is that once the Boardwalk is widened, the once popular Boardwalk trolley system could be reinstated in scaled down form.
Next year, if federal funding is continued, hurricane protection work will involve installing two pumping stations - one at 16th Street and the other at 42nd Street and the Oceanfront. A segment of Boardwalk and beach widening would also be included. by CNB