August 23rd, 2011 | 48 Comments

Last weekend, Norfolk’s Tide light rail line opened to big crowds and lots of excitement in a state that has never before seen modern light rail technology in action. But the project was overbudget and the subject of years of controversy. What was once supposed to be a $232 million line had ballooned in cost to $318.5 million and in the process taken down political leaders who had supported it. Perceived mismanagement delayed consideration of extensions into nearby Virginia Beach. And the scheme’s implementation flaws emboldened conservative activists insistant on playing up the poor performance of government.

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Monday, September 26, 2011 · 11:30 am

The City of Virginia Beach invites the public to a second round of meetings that are integral to developing a master plan for the Lynnhaven Strategic Growth Area (SGA), one of eight urban SGAs identified in the city’s Comprehensive Plan.  As part of a weeklong design charette, the public is invited to an open house on Wednesday, Oct. 5, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., to view the work in progress and to talk with the design team as it explores various future urban design scenarios for the SGA.  The open house will be in the pavilion at London Bridge Baptist Church, 2460 Potters Road.  A public meeting is also planned for Thursday, Oct. 6, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the church gymnasium.

In early September, the City of Virginia Beach held the first round of public meetings to receive broad public input on the SGA’s strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.  These meetings were facilitated by Urban Design Associates and resulted in a set of draft design principles and potential boundary expansions for the Lynnhaven SGA.  The purpose of the October design charette is to refine these principles into future design alternatives for the SGA and obtain more specific public input.

For more information on the Lynnhaven SGA Master Plan, contact Jeryl Phillips in the Planning Department at (757) 385-4621 or visit www.VBgov.com/lynnhaven.

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Inside Business, August 12, 2011

In an effort to establish tomorrow’s leaders and enhance the quality of life in their city, young professionals in Norfolk have stepped up to take the reins from the “old boys’ club” – or at least help them steer.

The Generation Norfolk project, headed by Meredith Badali and Jesse Scaccia, young residents of the city, came out of discussions by a Greater Norfolk Corporation subcommittee called “Brain Drain.”

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BY Bill Reed

A GROUP OF prominent Virginia Beach businessmen advocates a quick, no-frills strategy to ease Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel traffic during peak hours and holidays.

Why? Because the crossing has become a serious obstacle to tourism and commercial interests in South Hampton Roads.

The plan is aimed at lessening 100,000 vehicles-per-day HRBT congestion until the state can finance a third Hampton Roads tunnel, add more lanes to existing approach bridges or build a tunnel connection linking Interstate 564 with the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel.

The cost of any of the options ranges in the billions and could take two decades to complete, state highway officials say.

The group, headed by Beach businessman Jerry McDonald, includes Bruce Thompson, a Beach developer and hotelier, and Frank Reidy, an engineer and philanthropist who heads the Center of Bioelectrics at Old Dominion University.

Financed by the businessmen at a cost of $150,000, the four-month study was conducted by Iteris Inc., a California traffic-management engineering consulting firm. It cites aggressive and fearful drivers as the chief reasons for tunnel backups. Structural, environmental and signage issues are listed as contributing factors.

To combat backups, the consultants recommend:

1. Easing the closed-in effect, which scares some drivers entering the tunnel, by removing ceiling tiles and painting the surface black.

2. Installing LED lighting inside the tunnel and using a plastic shade to filter sunlight at the entrances to ease the transition from bright to dark.

3. Painting tunnel walls with soothing illustrations of dolphins or water scenes to ease driver angst.

4. Installing electronic signs inside and outside the tunnel to advise motorists of traffic conditions.

5. Limiting heavy truck traffic to nonpeak hours. In addition, Navy and shipyard officials would be asked to stagger work hours at the Norfolk base and the Newport News shipbuilding facility.

Reidy, in a July 21 presentation to the Virginia Beach Hotel-Motel Association, said the recommended changes could save tunnel users $6 million a year in fuel and travel time and increase vehicle speeds inside the tunnel to 45 mph from 32 mph. The estimated cost of the changes: $8.5 million.

Reviewed by Carolyn Caywood

Local journalist Swift has traced the evolution of American roads over a century of change.  He celebrates the achievements of Thomas MacDonald head of the Bureau of Public Roads from1919 to 1953, and his protege, Frank Turner, who retired from the Federal Highway Administration in 1972.  Whatever the unintended consequences, these men led the greatest public works project in history.

In the 19th century, long distance travel was by train because roads were unmarked, unpaved, rutted mud wallows where they even existed.  The first advocates for better roads were bicycling enthusiasts, some of whom also became early adopters of motor cars, and airplanes.  The first national road was the Lincoln Highway, vestiges of which remain as route 30.  As private road organizations gave way to government highway departments, the role of federal coordination was debated.  Today’s numbered grid was worked out in the 1930s cooperatively with the states.  The famous route 66 got its designation in an argument with Kentucky.

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