Work to begin on new Va. Beach I-264 interchange

VIRGINIA BEACH

Construction will begin next month on a new Interstate 264 interchange in Virginia Beach that will simplify and shorten commutes for thousands of motorists.

Two ramps connecting I-264 with London Bridge Road will be built over the next two years at a cost of $9.4 million.

"It's really going to change the whole way that part of town functions," said Mark Schnaufer, a Virginia Beach transportation planner.

Motorists now have no direct access from the highway to London Bridge or Great Neck roads and must use the Lynnhaven North and South interchanges instead. About 50,000 vehicles a day use the Lynnhaven ramps.

Traffic routinely stacks up at that exit ramp onto the interstate in the afternoons. And in the mornings, the double turn lanes on Great Neck at Virginia Beach Boulevard and on Virginia Beach Boulevard at Lynnhaven Parkway are jammed with vehicles heading toward the interstate ramp.

Once the new interchange opens in October 2012, motorists heading to and from the London Bridge and Great Neck areas can avoid winding through city streets not designed to accommodate such heavy traffic volumes.

The ramps, less than a mile east of Lynnhaven, will accommodate traffic entering the westbound interstate lanes and approaching from the west on the interstate. Motorists approaching from the east on the interstate or entering eastbound I-264 will still have to use the Lynnhaven ramps.

The exit ramp will end at London Bridge Road, and motorists can turn right toward Oceana Naval Air Station or left to Great Neck Road. The on-ramp takes motorists under the interstate roughly parallel to existing railroad tracks before looping onto I-264.

"It's for that peak commuter flow," Schnaufer said.

Nearly 20,000 vehicles per day crowd the Lynnhaven Parkway off-ramps, according to a Virginia Department of Transportation 2007 traffic survey. More than 29,000 per day jam the on-ramps. Traffic volumes are forecasted to grow to 22,000 and 32,000, respectively, by 2032.

With the addition of the new ramps, those forecasted numbers are projected to drop by about 32 percent to 14,600 and 22,400, according to VDOT.

"We're getting a good return on our investment on this project," Schnaufer said.

It will be the first new interstate interchange in Hampton Roads since the early 2000s, when the Busch Gardens ramps were built on Interstate 64 on the Peninsula.

The London Bridge interchange plan had been dormant because of a funding shortage and was not scheduled for construction until it received an infusion of $2 million in federal stimulus money.

VDOT programmed the project at $18.6 million. About $6 million was already spent in engineering and right-of-way purchases. More than $12 million was estimated for construction, but bids for the project came in about $3 million less.

It's being funded through state and federal sources; no city money is involved.

Lauren Hansen, VDOT spokeswoman, said the construction will have minimal impact on traffic. She said there will be lane closures on the interstate toward the end of the project when crews tie in the new ramps. That work will primarily be done at night.

The new London Bridge Road ramps are the first of a two-part process to improve the I-264/Lynnhaven Parkway interchange. The second part includes reconfiguring the existing interchange, but it's not scheduled because of a lack of funding.

Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com