Whirligig-a-Go-Go

Okay so what’s your opinion on the proposal for the new I-95 exit onto Temple Avenue? I know you all have an opinion, I’ve heard the rumors. Oh well, maybe they aren’t just rumors.

I, for one, think the darn thing will work and would be an improvement, but I understand how it is for others. My wife, for instance, assured me that she will be getting off the Interstate at Walthall rather than trip the drive fantastic and attempt even the simplest right hand turn exit onto Temple Ave.

Others who live south of Temple Avenue, I have been assured, will simply take the South Park Mall exit ramp and head back to Temple by the old Holzner house on the corner. You know the Holzner house, where Santa used to hang out with his sleigh and reindeer during the season.

From there, you can go right to the mall or left to the older parts of the city and the middle school. In fact, those driving patterns will be beat into our heads over the next two years while the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) dusts up the exit to make it even better, smarter, modern, sort of like Common Core, right?

But believe me, with my wife at home, I have heard the woes of the BIG CHANGE. And to some extent I can understand the angst. The intersection, when working properly, ought to be a dream. But knowing how people are, and how they tend to drive, it looks more to me like a figure 8 race track.

No matter what VDOT does, making the roundabout work relies totally on the drivers applying a smidgen of common sense. The problem is obvious. Just parse that last statement.

People, oh sorry, I meant drivers come in a number of varieties. There are those who will be overly cautious and sit at the entrance to the circle of death when they ought to be pulling out and there will be the other people, like me, who will be zipping in and out of the circle as if it were the Daytona 500.

I am certain it will fix the accident problem at that nasty intersection, which resulted in more than one accident a week over the past year. But here’s the rub with that, there’s only one spot that an accident can occur and that’s where west bound Temple Avenue traffic attempts to make a left turn onto the Interstate across the east bound Temple Avenue lanes. As witness, in most cases the feat can be accomplished with ease. Again, making it work relies on the skills of the driver trying to get to the other side, ala that famous chicken.

With the roundabout, in order to fix that accident problem, we open up two additional chances for someone to smack someone else due to bad driving skills. The roundabout has three entry points:  off the Interstate, east bound Temple, and west bound Temple. Let’s not look at the merge issues for everyone coming off the Interstate and heading to Soutpark.

That’s the problem that my wife, and numbers of other Colonials, see. To them, I think, the roundabout is nothing more than a grownup, real-time version of the Frogger game: Nissan, Ford, Kia, open space-go… To me, this is merely a problem for timid drivers. And perhaps I am a bad judge, since when I grew up and was learning to drive my dad told me:  “the pedal on the right is the gas and the disc in the middle of the steering wheel is the horn.” I asked, “What’s that fat pedal on the left?” He said, “You don’t need that, just hit the horn real hard and punch the gas pedal.” Such is the driving life in the state of New York.

So, Wednesday night I took a minute to check out the Pardon our Dust tour VDOT was putting on at our wonderful and new Courthouse. I walked in and asked to speak to one of the engineers, because I had an epiphany (good idea) about how to remove two of the potential accident spots. Most of the time when I get these crazy ideas I’m smart enough to ignore them. Don’t believe me, just ask my wife Jackie-yes she’s on FaceBook.

But this one made perfect sense. Instead of creating a roundabout, why not just lift the eastbound Temple Avenue lanes over the Interstate exit, thereby eliminating any interference from Temple avenue traffic.  The only potential accident spot would be where the westbound Temple traffic turned onto I-95 and where the I-95 exit ramp emptied onto westbound Temple.

So when I got to where the display was, I asked to speak to one of the VDOT engineers involved with the roundabout. They put me in touch with a person, who I cannot remember his name. I told him about my idea, and he said, “I can see how that would work, let me introduce you to Darrell Fischer.”

Turns out Mr. Fischer is the design guy for the roundabout. I told him about my idea, and he said, “I wish we would have seen it sooner.” He said he would take an honest look at it, even though he felt it might add $500k to the $13 million project.

Alas, there are some technical issues that may make the Llloyd Goddard overpass impossible. VDOT, it seems, has standards when it comes to building highways and a bridge would have height restrictions, and then other potential problems because of the length of the roadway and entrances and exits. Perhaps this is one of those ideas that die on the planning board, but either way, at least it presents a potential fix for a highway improvement that not everyone is in favor of.

Here’s Mr. Fischer’s response to me:

David,
As requested and promised, I have evaluated the overpass option that you discussed with me on Wednesday evening. There are several geometric issues/concerns that I cannot overlook or overcome. The first is the profile. As we discussed, in order to make the option feasible, it would have to tie down prior to the two entrances on either side of the roundabout - proposed Kroger entrance to the west and Hardees to the east. Every option I looked at took me back prior to the Kroger entrance and honestly too close to Hamilton Avenue for my comfort. Another serious issue would be the required width of the roadway. Once we elevate the roadway we would be required to widen the roadway for shoulders to accommodate accidents and breakdowns. This additional width would be between 12 and 15 feet (including the bridge). The footprint of the current design has no room to get wider as it would impact Ridge Road and/or the Kroger site. A third concern is the sight distance. As the road elevates, retaining walls would need to be constructed which would cause sight distance issues for the Hardees entrance. Finally, I looked at the cost of doing such an option. Between the bridge, the retaining walls, the added roadway width, and the additional impacts to the adjacent properties, the cost would be in well in excess of $2 million. In actuality, it could go significantly higher given the visual impact that it would have on not only the Kroger site but also all of the residents along Ridge Road. Although I suspected the cost was going to be significant, I don't feel that cost alone is enough to deter this option. Unfortunately, there are design/geometric issues that I cannot overcome which make it infeasible without cost even being considered.
All of this being said, I like your innovative spirit which is why I gave it my personal attention to evaluate. Should you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.
Thank you and take care.
Darell L. Fischer, P.E., DBIA