Hampton Roads Beltway

The Hampton Roads Beltway is a loop of Interstate 64 and Interstate 664, which links the communities of the Virginia Peninsula and South Hampton Roads which surround the body of water known as Hampton Roads and comprise much of the region of the same name in the southeastern portion of Virginia in the United States. It crosses the harbor of Hampton Roads at two locations on large four-laned bridge-tunnel facilities: the eastern half carries Interstate 64 (and U.S. Route 60) and uses the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the western half carries Interstate 664 and uses the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel. The beltway has the clockwise direction (as looking down at a map of the area) signed as the Inner Loop, and the counter-clockwise direction signed as the Outer Loop. The entire beltway, including the bridge-tunnels, is owned and operated by the Virginia Department of Transportation.

History

thumbnail|I-64 on the Hampton Roads Beltway, north of I-264|right

Even before Interstate 64 was built beginning in 1958, from some of the earliest planning stages, there were hopes of a circumferential highway to Interstate highway standards for the Hampton Roads region. Some proposals envisioned state and local and/or toll funding if necessary to achieve that goal.

Indeed, the first two-laned portion of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel was built with toll revenue bond funding in 1957 prior to the creation of I-64. It carried U.S. Route 60 and State Route 168 designations, and tied in with the new Tidewater Drive in Norfolk. (Tolls were removed when the other two lanes and tunnel were built adjacently to the immediate south of the older structure with federal Interstate Highway funding in the mid 1970s.)

Building of Interstate 64 was the first priority in the region, and a portion of Interstate 264 through Portsmouth connecting with the Downtown Tunnel was completed even as I-64 finally reached its eastern terminus at Bower's Hill in Norfolk County (which became the City of Chesapeake in 1963).

I-64, the portion of the Hampton Roads Beltway which was completed first, makes a huge long arc around the area, from Hampton through portions of Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Chesapeake and around Portsmouth to reach Bower's Hill at the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp.

It was a number of years before the newer I-664 portion was built. The roadway connects with I-64 at Bower's Hill in Chesapeake and crosses through portions of Portsmouth and Suffolk to cross Hampton Roads via the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel and then pass through eastern Newport News to reconnect with I-64 in Hampton. This completed the loop in 1992.

In January, 1997, a -long I-64/I-664 loop was designated by the Virginia Department of Transportation (and signed) as the Hampton Roads Beltway.

Route description

I-664 begins at a full Y interchange with I-64 and I-264 that serves as the terminus of all three Interstates in the Bowers Hill section of the city of Chesapeake. I-64 heads southeast as a continuation of the Hampton Roads Beltway through Chesapeake while I-264 heads east toward Portsmouth and Norfolk. I-664 heads west as an eight-lane freeway that has a southbound-only exit ramp to US 13 and US 460 (Military Highway) and crosses over Military Highway and a Norfolk Southern Railway rail line. The Interstate has a cloverleaf interchange with Military Highway, which here carries US 58 in addition to US 13 and US 460. The interchange also provides access to US 460 Alternate, which follows US 58 east into Portsmouth. I-664 curves north as a four-lane freeway that crosses Goose Creek and has a diamond interchange with SR 663 (Dock Landing Road) and a cloverleaf interchange with SR 337 (Portsmouth Boulevard). Plans have construction to be complete by 2020.

Outer Loop/I-264 interchange widening

In 2016, VDOT undertook a project to build and improve on the exit ramp from the Outer Loop (I-64 westbound, from Chesapeake towards Norfolk/Hampton) to eastbound I-264. The single lane exit ramp is typically highly congested during peak traffic hours due to the fact that it requires vehicles exiting onto I-264 to weave merge into a collector-distributor lane which carries traffic exiting to nearby Virginia State Route 403 (Newtown Road). Plans call for adding a second Outer Loop exit lane and widening of the exit ramp from one to two lanes. The project will also build a new, two lane collector distributor road for traffic exiting to Newtown Road, while allowing traffic from the Outer Loop to connect to the old collector-distributor lanes without weaving through traffic. The projects expected cost is $158 million, and should be completed by October 2019.

High Occupancy - Toll (HOT) lane conversion

As part of the I-64 Express Lanes project, the Hampton Roads Beltway will see the conversion of all of its HOV lanes to HOT lanes. Segment 1 will convert the 2 lane reversible roadway in Norfolk between the I-64/I-564 interchange and the I-64/I-264 interchange to HOT-2 lanes, Segment 2 would convert the single HOV-2 diamond lane in each direction to HOT-2 lanes, and will extend those lanes across the new High Rise Bridge to the Bowers Hill interchange, and Segment 3 would continue the project from the I-564/I-64 interchange in Norfolk across the Hampton Roads to the I-64/I-664 interchange in Newport News.

Segment 1 is currently the only completed section. Segment 2 is currently under construction as part of the I-64 Southside Widening and the Segment 3 as part of the HRBT Expansion in 2024.

References

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External links

Kurumi's website about 3 digit interstates connecting with I-64
Interstate Guide I-64 in Virginia
Interstate Guide I-664 in Virginia