This report is from Day 1 of a 2-day trip to the 2004 "Raleigh Roadgeek Meet" at the end of May, 2004.
Hi all. Concluded a Friday-Saturday 2-day roadtrip through southern Virginia
and northern North Carolina. The primary goal of the trip was to go to the
Durham Hamfest (as in ham radio) and try and get my amateur radio license
(missed the test by 3 points...will be trying again next week in Rocky Mount,
NC). Did a lot of driving around and photo-taking in the process.
Day 1 (Friday): Virginia Beach to Raleigh, via Greenville and elsewhere:
- With it being the Friday afternoon before Memorial Day, traffic in Hampton
Roads was already a mess. A few accidents here and there only made things much
worse. Ultimately took me an hour-and-a-half to clear Suffolk...a trip that can
take as little as 45 minutes (but usually an hour or so). As a result, my route
was rather convoluted, involving going through downtown Norfolk, taking I-464,
and going through downtown Suffolk.
- On US 13/58/460, just east of the Suffolk Bypass, construction for an access
improvement to the regional landfill (accessed via an at-grade intersection) has
been completed (I'd noticed this a couple months ago, but didn't post at the
time). The improvement was done to reduce the accident rate at the intersection,
reduce the amount of left-turning traffic (now only consisting of left-turns
from EB 13/58/460 onto the landfill access road), and reduce the *VERY* lengthy
delays that traffic from the landfill endured in trying to get onto EB
13/58/460. What the project involved was making the movement for traffic coming
out of the landfill a right-out-only onto WB 13/58/460, adding an auxiliary lane
from that right-out movement to the ramp to BUSINESS 13/58/460, and the building
a loop ramp from BUS 13/58/460 to EB 13/58/460 utilizing part of the ROW at the
mainline/Business interchange:
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=11&x=909&y=10171&z=18&w=2
You can see the interchange best at this level. You can scroll to the east to
see the intersection in question (it's the first one to the east). The ghost
grades were going to be connections to the never-built and
recently-permanently-cancelled Southeastern Suffolk Bypass. The ramp that was
recently added for the landfill traffic begins at about the point where NB
traffic from the SE Bypass would have crossed over, makes a sweeping 30 MPH
curve to the right, and enters the EB mainline about at the point closest to the
ghost/cancelled NB-WB loop.
- Later on, while travelling through downtown Suffolk, I noticed that the former
VA 337 East cut-out no longer exists and has been replaced by a pair of standard
shields.
- Dropped down BUS US 13 from downtown Suffolk, not realizing that the 55 MPH
zone starts so far north (just north of SR 711, previously known as TRUCK US
13). From here, I edged onto the SW Suffolk Bypass and back to US 58.
- Traffic on US 58 through western Suffolk was a mess, requiring several light
cycles to get through the area. Not sure if this was holiday-traffic related or
residual effects from a mid-day high-speed-chase/accident that at one point
closed part of the US 58 Suffolk Bypass.
- Saw gas for $1.889 in Suffolk, and wish I'd stopped...my usual station, at US
58/SR 616 (just east of VA 272) was at $1.959...though they had mid-grade for
only 4 cents more, so I wound up getting that.
- Rather than get back onto US 58, I took SR 616 south and a myriad of other
secondary routes, getting to US 13 near Reynoldson, NC. Took US 13 south, with
the goal of clinching as much of US 13 as time allowed (I'd previously only been
on one short section south of Winton).
- On the north end of Ahoskie, traffic definately favors "TO NC 11" over
continuing on US 13 into Ahoskie.
- American/NG-style atlases get BYPASS US 13 around Windsor wrong. It is not
fully 4-lanes...there's roughly 2.5 miles or so on the southwest side that is
still 2 lanes. The 2004 NC map gets it right, though.
- Further south, in Williamston, pavement has been completely removed from a
segment of US 13/17 that was bypassed/realigned as part of the recent US 64
bypass project. Along those lines, the NC map is wrong here...there is only a
partial interchange at US 64 East (effectively consisting of ramps for the US 64
"through movements"...an at-grade signalized intersection handles all other
movements), US 13/17 is not limited access north of there, and there is no
interchange on the north end, either.
- That wasn't the only 2004 NC map error I discovered yesterday, either. I
followed US 64A west out of Williamston, but hopped back onto US 64 (and US 13)
for about 10 miles before exiting onto US 13/NC 11 South, where I got to
experience the recently built Bethel bypass. The bypass, while limited-access,
is definately *NOT* a freeway. There is only one "interchange", if you want to
call a pair of right-in/right-out accesses on each side of the highway an
interchange. The limited-access segment runs south to NC 30, which contrary to
the NC map is an at-grade intersection.
- It's roughly 12 miles along US 13 from US 64 to US 264, but I passed *FIVE*
distance signs showing mileage to Greenville.
- Took US 264 west to US 64 at this point. On the west end of the Greenville
bypass, US 264 exits itself at a cloverleaf interchange that has ramps and loops
graded (but not paved) for an eventual extension to the south. My understanding
is that this extension is proposed and would become part of a Greenville bypass
for US 13.
- South of Wilson, construction is underway on the ramps for the future US 117
freeway to the south. Access will be provided to/from the west along US
264...movements to/from the east, I presume, will be handed by the existing
264/301/117 interchange.
- Was approaching 5pm as I got to Zebulon. Given the evening-rush-hour
tendencies of Raleigh traffic, not to mention it being Friday evening on a
holiday weekend, I opted to exit 64/264 at "Lizard Lick", where I proceeded to
take backroads to north Raleigh.
- Spent the evening with Adam Prince, scouting out tour stops and routes for
next week's Raleigh regional meet.
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