Please Widen Interstate 64 North of Newport News

For years they’ve been talking about the need to widen the road between Hampton/Newport News, Virginia and the capital city of Richmond. For much of its length the road is two lanes in each direction. This creates bad traffic flow even on a Saturday morning when there’s no other reason that traffic should be congested. For example if a car breaks down in the shoulder on Interstate 64 westbound headed through West Point, then all the other cars are forced to move over to the left hand lane to try to be careful and not have a secondary collision with the broken down vehicle.

The same thing is true for work trucks or Virginia State Troopers pulling over speeders. So the law says we have to move over one lane to give clearance to any vehicles that are stopped over on the side of the road which is a good safety rule. But now you have all the vehicles that should be in two lanes down into one lane. Just getting all those cars and trucks sorted out and back into the two lanes with the slower moving traffic in the right hand lane takes miles and creates a accordion wave of slowed down traffic.

Another problem with only having two lanes on this major artery through one of Virginia’s most populous regions Hampton Roads and its major central city Richmond is the fact that many drivers don’t seem to understand the idea that if a speed limit is 70 miles an hour that even if they’re going 69 they are the slower moving traffic that needs to move to the right hand lane. So you have people going essentially under the speed limit in the left hand lane causing people who are running at or slightly over the speed limit zipping in and out in the right hand lane trying to get around them. Then all it takes is one truck or other slow moving vehicle in the right hand lane and everybody including the slower moving vehicles thinks they need to be in the left hand lane. Again you get this incredibly bad traffic flow where everybody is hitting the brakes for miles.

This is a public safety hazard and an inefficiency problem. The Republican controlled legislature in Richmond has done very little for decades to get Virginia roads straight. Far more attention is needed to Virginia road funding so that the Commonwealth can be the kind of pro‑business good place to live that everyone wants it to be. Interstate 64 widening should be a top priority for anyone in the state but especially the voters and citizens of Hampton Roads and Richmond and all points in between.

If you are hurt in a car accident on I-64 you should contact an experienced Virginia car accident attorney with Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers. Cooper Hurley has client meeting locations on the Peninsula in Newport News and Hampton. Call us at 757.455.0077.