THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 20, 1995 TAG: 9501180172
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: The Road Warrior
LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
'Tis the year of meetings. Public meetings, at that. Road doesn't remember a time when public opinion was a more cherished thing.
Anyway, back to the meeting - the Tidewater Transportation District Commission (TTDC) is holding a public involvement/citizen workshop from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Sentara Leigh Hospital, 830 Kempsville Road.
The topic will be the Norfolk-Virginia Beach Corridor Major Investment Study (MIS).
Basically, the workshop will explain the scope of this project and help identify alternative transportation solutions for this corridor, which includes Route 44, Interstate 264, Virginia Beach Boulevard, the Norfolk Southern Railroad alignment and some adjacent areas. The corridor is considered to be the major connector between Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
The commission is hoping that you'll take it upon yourself to get involved in this corridor project and maybe offer up some viable solutions for improving the flow of traffic.
According to the commission, traffic volume on Route 44 is expected to increase 87 percent by 2015. Summer traffic increases on Route 44 by 750,000 vehicles per month.
Those with disabilities who need special assistance can call 640-6295 for help. Or, for TDD users, call 622-5513.
If there's no way you can make the meeting, but you still want to comment, you can send written comments to: Janette Crumley, Public Information Coordinator, TTDC, P.O. Box 2096, Norfolk, Va. 23501.
If anyone needs a ride, Road's going and would be happy to give some folks a free ride. Call me on Infoline and let me know if you need a lift. You'll need to call by 5 p.m. Wednesday.
SNARLS OF THE WEEK
The following people called Road's INFOLINE number with their complaints.
Esther Fitts, No Address Given. I'm wondering why they can't do something at the Indian River Road and Military Highway intersection, where the new paving stops, to keep us from tearing our cars up?
RW: Actually, Esther, they have done something at this intersection. When Indian River Road was repaved a few months ago, the new paving stopped short of the intersection with Military Highway because the city was waiting for a utility project to be finished at the intersection.
The project is finished and the area was paved this week.
Ms. Meryon, No Address Given. I'm calling just to tell you about the light on Pleasure House Road and Shore Drive. You wrote about this two weeks ago, but there seems to be no improvement as was promised.
Down Pleasure House Road towards Chick's beach is getting worse and worse. Thanks so much for being interested in us.
RW: Hmm. Odd. Road hasn't heard another peep out of any Chick's Beach folks since that light was changed to allow more people through on Pleasure House. Yours is the first complaint so far. Any others?
Jeff Peterson, Chesapeake. I'm wondering why we can't have a Road Warrior in The Clipper. My folks still live in Virginia Beach so I occasionally get to look at the section there. We would love to have one where we could air our gripes on these roads in Chesapeake. If you could do that, that would be outstanding to everyone in this area. We hope something like that can happen in the future.
RW: Isn't that nice - y'all wanting your own Road Warrior and all. Actually, the Road Warrior was published regularly in The Clipper (in Chesapeake) and The Compass (in Norfolk) a few years back. Guess Road's dry sense of humor didn't go over as well in those cities, though, because that stopped a long time ago.
However, Road is more than happy to answer questions about any Hampton Roads city. You'll just have to drive over to Mom and Dad's to read about it.
Phil Bornemeier, No Address Given. With the expensive concrete being in place on many of our roads, why do we see that there are large chunks of concrete removed about every 30 feet, like a 6-inch wide cutout and then apparently just refilled, especially on the Toll Road?
It just looks like they're putting in and having to repair lots of that expensive concrete. Is that a problem? Are they doing it for expansion or what?
And second, Virginia Beach Boulevard from First Colonial Road all the way to Norfolk, you cannot make a left turn across the Boulevard unless you have a light with an arrow. It turns out that many times you are just sitting there waiting with a red arrow and no traffic coming in the other direction. Why can't they be made to be a left turn that yields on a circular green, across the medians?
RW: In reference to the first question: concrete, like asphalt, does have to be replaced when it cracks from harsh weather, etc.
The ``cutout'' is actually joint replacement, which is a piece between two slabs of concrete. These joints only last so long in harsh weather (they expand, retract, etc. with the elements) so it makes sense that they're replaced as soon as they go bad. And yes, you're right. There are a zillion such ``joints'' on our interstates, but, unfortunately, there is no better, or cheaper, alternative (concrete is cheaper to patch than asphalt) for joint material.
As for your second question, the reason there are no ``left turns must yield to circular green'' lights on the Boulevard is because the eight-lane roadway is too wide to try and cross while yielding to oncoming traffic at the same time. It would be too easy to misjudge how far someone is away from you, etc.
The distance to cross is so great (even one set of four lanes) that national safety standards won't allow you to yield to oncoming traffic to turn left across a road that wide.
Reid McManus, Sandbridge. My beef is the new asphalt on Sandbridge Road, starting at Lotus and heading down toward the Beach. It appears that they're mostly finished, but it's rough like an old washboard road you used to get 50 or 60 years ago.
If a traffic engineer hasn't ridden out to see what it was like, please get him to do it. Or, when are they going to put a finished coat on it so it's that decent asphalt to travel on?
RW: Well, Reid, someone did go out there because the contractor has been made to repave the work. It seems the first job of paving wasn't acceptable to the city, either.
A note to everyone about Silina Drive: Did you notice that Silina Drive is being worked on? The city's paving department is out there replacing curbs, gutters and resident driveways (the lips of them anyway). Once that's finished, they'll be repaving the whole road. It should all be done in another month or two. MEMO: Tell the Road Warrior about your motoring problems. Get 'em off your
chest. Call on Infoline, at 640-5555. After a brief message, dial ROAD
(7623). When directed, press 1 to deliver your message, and 1 again to
sign off.
Or, write: The Road Warrior, Virginia Beach Beacon, 4565 Virginia
Beach Blvd., Virginia Beach, Va. 23462.
Don't forget to include your name, address and neighborhood.
by CNB