2014 Hampton Roads Meet, Part 3: The Meet Begins

The meet consisted of 13 attendees: myself, Froggie, Mike "Mapmikey" Roberson, Oscar Voss, Mike Tantillo, H.B. Elkins, C. Patrick Zilliacus, Brian LeBlanc, Daniel Greenstein, Laura and Mike Pruett, Michael Temme-Soifer, and Keith Thomas. After lunch we split into four cars: Froggie drove me, MTS, and Keith; Oscar drove H.B., Patrick, and Mike T; Mapmikey drove the Pruetts and Daniel; and Brian drove himself in case he had to leave early.

Leaving the restaurant, heading towards I-64 on Greenbrier Parkway.


Getting onto I-64.


And exiting.


This area of Chesapeake has been under construction on and off for years now. First, the Oak Grove Connector (VA 168) was completed, connecting the Great Bridge bypass with I-64 and rerouting US 17 down former VA 104, Dominion Boulevard. Now, US 17 is being converted to a freeway, with interchanges (heading south) at VA 190 (to be a SPUI), VA 166 (diamond), and VA 165 (SPUI). The first four stops on the tour were all related to this construction.


US 17 used to continue to the left of the hill, but construction of a new high-rise bridge over the Elizabeth River has temporarily rerouted it to the right, over VA 166's southernmost parts.


And here's some bad signage. VA 166 may as well be truncated to this intersection, because south of here US 17 follows it, and after construction is completed it'll be rerouted to hit 17 at Dominion Lakes (which we'll see later).


Despite the span wires and silos, we're still in the suburbs.


Arriving at the first stop, the bridge construction. US 17 currently uses a drawbridge.


Froggie's Tiguan, Oscar's Prius, Brian's Civic, and Mapmikey's Saturn Aura.


The bridge was opening, so we watched. Traffic backed up quickly.


Back on the road, going over the bridge to the next site.


12-8-8 signal means old.


After the bridge is the future interchange with VA 165.


For the next stop, we turned into a neighborhood off VA 165 to take pictures. Two houses were demolished as part of the construction.


The mailbox and driveway entrance from one of the destroyed houses were still present.


After this we got back on the road and went to another vantage point of the same construction. I'll pick up there in part 4.