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A New Meaning of `Flyover' / At Richmond International, It's a Plan to Fix a Scary Intersection

Posted on: Wednesday, 8 March 2006, 18:00 CST

By CHIP JONES

Travel agent Conni Evans dreads driving into Richmond's airport terminal.

With sudden curves and crossing traffic, Airport Drive can be hard on one's brakes and blood pressure. There's one especially bad intersection near

the toll plaza where southbound and northbound traffic crosses paths.

"It's terrible," said Evans, of Mechanicsville. "As much money as they've plowed into that place, you'd think they'd have something better."

Something better is coming.

Richmond International officials are preparing to start a $10 million construction project this summer.

The goal: separate traffic driving into and out of the airport with two overpasses, which engineers call "flyovers." One overpass would be for southbound traffic and the other for northbound vehicles. As part of the work, the intersection will go away.

No fatal wrecks have occurred there, but at least four collisions have been reported during the past four years, police records show.

"There probably have been thousands of near misses," airport spokesman Troy Bell said.

In January 2005, an airport shuttle bus driver struck a Federal Express truck. No one was hurt, but the bus driver was ticketed for failure to yield the right of way after pulling out from the stop sign.

Either way you're driving, the intersection can be tricky - and potentially treacherous.

The southbound lanes of Airport Drive split - one going toward the airport terminal and garages and the other heading south toward Charles City Road.

Just after the split, northbound vehicles must stop for those heading toward the airport. It's easy to get confused with traffic coming from so many directions.

Those driving north on Airport Drive need to watch out for harried travelers barreling toward the terminal. Once stopping and then crossing that lane of traffic, they need to look quickly to their right for vehicles merging from the seven-lane toll plaza for the parking garages.

The posted speed limit is 15 mph, but as Bell quipped as a car whipped by, "Something tells me that guy's not going 15."

Airport police patrol the area, but on this day, they weren't a deterrent.

Airport Drive and its surrounding roads also serve major shippers at the airport, including Federal Express, United Parcel Service and the U.S. Postal Service.

The roadwork comes at a critical time, as the air- port just completed a record year, with 2.9 million passengers, a 16.3 percent increase compared to

2004.

A second low-fare airline, JetBlue Airways, will enter the Richmond market in late March, which should increase the number of passengers hurrying to their flights.

The highway hodgepodge dates back to the early 1990s when the airport was in a growth mode. The road improvements mark a final piece of the airport's $46.8 million expansion, which adds a two- level terminal and roadway system.

Work on the first phase of road improvements is set to begin this summer, with completion by summer 2007. The major feature is an overpass for anyone driving south on Airport Drive into the garage and terminal area.

A second phase will begin in the fall, featuring a second overpass for northbound traffic leaving the terminal area.

Depending on the timing of federal transportation dollars, planners hope to make another round of improvements - costing $2 million or more - to Airport Drive's intersection with Charles City Road.

The new, improved four-lane roadway could be completed by the summer of 2008.

Contact staff writer Chip Jones at cjones@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6726.

ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO, MAP

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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