Robin Custer has made the trek up Interstate 64 on the Peninsula for nearly 13 years to and from her job at Naval Station Norfolk, so she’s familiar with the bottlenecks between James City County and Newport News.
On Thursday afternoon she came to get information on the second phase of construction plans to expand the roadway at a briefing held by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
“It’s really the worst heading east right near Newport News,” Custer said.
Construction on the second phase of the VDOT project is scheduled to begin in early 2016. The work will widen the road from just east of Yorktown Road to west of Humelsine Parkway, a 7 mile stretch of I-64 that is among the most crowded on the Peninsula, with more than 81,000 vehicle trips per day.
The first phase of the project, which is scheduled to start this fall, will stretch from near the Jefferson Avenue exit to past Fort Eustis Boulevard on I-64. A contract has been granted to Shirley Contracting Company, of Lorton, for $122 million, according to Janet Hedrick, a project manager for VDOT.
The second phase of the project is expected to cost $213 million, and is funded entirely through local taxes passed under former Gov. Bob McDonnell’s signature transportation law. Hedrick said the project is expected to be completed in July of 2019. The first phase of the project is scheduled to be finished in December of 2017.
At Thursday’s meeting at the Doubletree by Hilton hotel in James City County, a host of VDOT and public officials were on hand including VDOT Hampton Roads Administrator Jim Utterback, Del. Monty Mason, D-Williamsburg, and James City Supervisor Mary Jones.
There were no formal presentations made, but VDOT staff sat at different work stations and explained various parts of the project to members of the public who strolled by.
Mason said it was important that public officials continue to lobby for funding and construction of phase 3 of the project, which would extend the I-64 widening all the way to mile marker 234 in Lightfoot.
Utterback said two lanes of traffic in both directions will be open during peak usage hours while the construction is being done. “We’re trying to minimize the traffic impacts as much as possible,” Utterback said.
He said concrete barriers will be erected so that construction work can be done during the day. VDOT officials said there are no plans to decrease the speed limit in the construction zones during peak hours.
“We’ve got to keep up the momentum,” Mason said. “If it ends where it does now, it will only move the bottleneck forward instead of alleviating traffic congestion.”
Bogues can be reached by phone at 757-345-2346.
