The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
To improve traffic flow on Hampton Boulevard, a study panel on Tuesday recommended several short-term options to the City Council, including providing more transit options, developing incentives to encourage carpooling and relying more on barges and trains to move cargo containers within the port.
Longer-term recommendations include constructing park-and-ride facilities from which people could catch express buses to travel along the corridor, building a pedestrian bridge at Old Dominion University, and extending the light rail line to Naval Station Norfolk, according to the report by the 13-member group established last year by the council.
The panel includes representatives of major employers along the congested north-south route, including the medical complex, Old Dominion University, the Navy and the Virginia Port Authority.
There is no "silver bullet" for solving the roadway's challenges, said Assistant City Manager Anne Odell, who presented the report. Though large trucks are blamed for much of the corridor's traffic woes because they are big and loud, such rigs make up only about 5 percent of the traffic, she said.
The panel's other suggestions included synchronizing traffic lights to speed traffic, studying the possibility of making both lanes of the Midtown Tunnel flow one way out of Norfolk on weekday afternoons and "creating and strengthening" fines for too-tall trucks that can't fit through the tunnel and block traffic as they turn around.
Mayor Paul D. Fraim, who initiated the look at Hampton Boulevard last year by saying the congestion could impede emergency vehicles, said the panel did a "good job."
The real solution, Fraim said, lies in expanding the Midtown Tunnel and building a third crossing that would provide another link between South Hampton Roads and the Peninsula. Anything short of those won't solve the problem, he said.
As an interim step, Fraim suggested creating a "rapid response team" to quickly clear accidents from the road.
Last fall, the council banned big rigs on Hampton Boulevard from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. between Norfolk International Terminals and the Midtown Tunnel. That has shifted some trucks to Tidewater Drive, said Vice Mayor Anthony L. Burfoot.
Arthur W. Moye Jr., the executive vice president of the Virginia Maritime Association and a study panel member, disputed that there has been a shift of trucks after 4 p.m.
The panel recommended that it continue meeting to monitor congestion but on a quarterly basis, and that representatives from Hampton Roads Transit and the Virginia Department of Transportation join the group.
Gregory Richards, (757) 446-2599, gregory.richards@pilotonline.com
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Thus,
You are the Oz Girl. Thought; which is more valuable, Our Time or Petro?
More Petro and time is wasted while idling in line to the mid-towne tunnel from norfolk to p-towne. I also believe that your 6 mile 'estimate' is in error. it dwn twn tnl, is a much shorter diversion.
O' here's a memory, when a multi vehicle accident occurs in the mid-town tunnel and as soon as it is announced in an on air traffic report, the surge of diverting vehicles converging on ghent and dwntwn Norfolk toward the dwntwn tunnel is incedible and very chaotic and all arteries are choked, and it appears to be occuring with greater frequency these days, so save your health and time and just head for the dwntwn tunnel sooner.
i have no problem being the scarecrow on this one topic.
Hampton Blvd Traffic--BRIDGE FROM CRANEY ISLAND
The best way to reduce traffic on Hampton Blvd is to build a HIGH RISE BRIDGE from Craney Island (Rt 165) to the Marine Terminal area, ending near Terminal Blvd. This would give immediate relief to Midtown Tunnel truck traffic from via connection to I664, I64 and vehicle traffic to ODU and the Naval Base from the fast growing Churchland, Western Branch, Suffolk and Isle of Wight areas. The Navy has always objected for security reasons but Charleston, SC has had the Cooper River bridges blocking the Naval and Sub Bases for over 60 years with no problems.
Comment by cigim94543
I looked into your alternate route suggestion. I don't know about you, but I doubt many if anyone would be willing to add an additional 6 miles minimum to a commute. With a wait at either tunnel, I fail to see how this would make sense or save anyone anything.
another real issue here...
is the annoying VA habit of slowing down while entering a tunnel entrance that is going downhill. most of your rear end accidents in the tunnel are caused by the idiots who, with no car in front of them, decide they need to get from 40 down to 2 to safely navigate the entrance to the tunnel. i have lived in Boston and New York and have never seen so many people stand on the brakes at a tunnel entrance. it makes no sense at all. and no, a third crossing won't fix that, it will just be one more bottleneck when someone decides they're moving too fast and need to stomp on the brakes. what needs to be done is on the idea of a red light camera at the entrance to tunnels...except send out a ticket for driving too slow on a major thoroughfare. i know the Commonwealth is always looking for new and creative ways to raid your wallet, at least this one may have a desired effect in the end.
Trucks are NOT the problem
Leave the trucks alone, they were there first. I live on Hampton Blvd. 1700 block. the real problems as mentioned are the traffic lights, from 35th st. down to the tunnel. They are irrational. Then most tunnel breakdowns are autos, cars! running out of gas, rear enders. The solution is as easy as diverting the naval base traffic heading to suffolk, portsmouth, and such to the downtown tunnel via tidewater dr., straight shot to the tunnel from the base. Once on the other side, chesapeake access is right there, churchland, suffolk access is the fredrick blvd. exit. So divert base traffic onto terminal blvd to tidewater dr. so simple, or stagger naval base work schedules, it seems too many end their day at the same time and converge onto hampton blvd. By the way, I work in P-Town and every day I use the downtown tunnel to and from work, no headaches. Everyone should try it -
Odell and Fraim are not realists
This evaluation is pretty much a waste of time and effort. Any idiot could have told Odel and Fraim that a 3rd crossing and widening the Midtown tunnel would help. Certainly adding light rail at billions of dollars sure couldn't hurt either! If you want to make an impact here are some simple short term things that could have been done yesterday: (1) REQUIRE the ODU students to park in satelight lots and take a shuttle (2) Keep the truck traffic OFF Hampton Blvd. Even if they only make up the proclaimed 5% (doubt that) of traffic the tractor trailers impede the flow with their slow start up and delaying turns off Hampton. But that won't change because Fraim is in the pockets of the maritime crowd, so scratch that. Ask ANYONE who lives off this thoroughfare how the truck restrictions have helped; doing more of them will better the situation. More talk no action!