This report is from my discovery of a partial opening of the then-under-construction Pinners Point interchange in Portsmouth, VA, on September 19, 2004.

While returing from NC today, I took a detour along the VA 164 Western Freeway to see on the progress of the "Pinners Point Interchange", as I hadn't heard anything new about it since VDOT's attempt to open part of the new bridge around Port Norfolk late last spring. Discovered that traffic has been rerouted to the new bridge, apparently as of today, and onto new ramps at the interchange itself. There is now a direct connection from the Midtown Tunnel (WB US 58) to WB VA 164, as well as a direct connection between Cleveland St and VA 164 utilizing what will be the future EB off-ramp to WB US 58. Curiously, traffic from EB VA 164 wanting to go to the Midtown Tunnel is required to stop at a stop sign where oncoming traffic from Cleveland St to WB VA 164 has the right-of-way.  Not sure how this is going to impact things come tomorrow morning's rush hour.  Should be interesting to see.

---------------------

After I got home, I noticed this article which ran in the Virginian Pilot yesterday:

Pinners Point project opens to traffic Sunday
By TOM HOLDEN, The Virginian-Pilot
© September 18, 2004

PORTSMOUTH - The Pinners Point interchange, one of the region's largest highway construction projects, crosses a major milestone Sunday when motorists gain direct access to the Western Freeway from the Midtown Tunnel.

The switch eliminates a roundabout route through Port Norfolk and is part of a series of new traffic patterns announced Friday by the Virginia Department of Transportation to ease congestion in the historic neighborhood.

The change will mark the second time that VDOT has tried to open a portion of the new interchange. In May , a similar partial opening was cancelled after motorists and truckers encountered long delays caused by construction on nearby Virginia Avenue. That work is now compete.

VDOT said it should complete the change in traffic patterns by 5 p.m. Sunday.

Rest of the article is at http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=75740&ran=102301

------------------------

Did not find anything on the VDOT website regarding this opening. While searching for a VDOT news release, I noticed that there's a discrepancy between the VDOT Dashboard entry for the project and the project website regarding the estimated completion date. Both the website and the Pilot article mention that the completion has been pushed to Spring '05, something that hasn't been updated yet on the Dashboard. Dashboard entry is here:
http://dashboard.virginiadot.org/ConstructionDetail.asp?project_id=115

Back to the Roadtrip Report Archive
Back to Magnolia Meanderings

(C) 2007, Adam Froehlig