Richmond VA Pocahontas Pkwy I-895

Richmond VA

Pocahontas Pkwy I-895

This project starts at the interchange of I-95 and VA-150 (Chippenham Pkwy) on the western bank of the James River, just downstream of the city’s small port and 11.5km south of the Richmond CBD. Major engineering challenge is the interchange itself given that the roadways start less than 10m above the adjacent river and that the state has required a 40m overhead clearance in the fixed span over the shipping channel nearby and maximum grades of 4% on the ramps. It is to have a 135m+ span over the shipping channel. Once on the east bank the road involves rather simple motorway standard roadway over flattish county for a total length of 14.2km, ending at I-295. Initially only one intermediate interchange for a connection to Laburnum Avenue is to be built, providing access to land ready for industrial development and to the airport.

Rationale for the project is the lack of a good link between the two sides of the river south of the city, and to relieve traffic pressures on the difficult-to-enlarge I-95 through the center of Richmond. In Chesterfield County to the west of the project are major residential areas together with an industrial strip on the west bank (which includes large Philip Morris and Dupont plants). These currently have no direct access east across the river to Henrico County and the airport which also has a developing industrial area around it. The route for I-895 was selected by VDoT in the early 1980s and enviro permits gotten by 1984, but in the past 13 years the only state funding has been for preliminary engineering designs.

VDoT designed monster bridge: Fluor Daniel and Morrison Knudsen formed a joint venture company FD/MK which proposed in Nov 95 to build the project as a toll road to the VDoT design, 8-lanes on the bridge, 6-lanes to the intermediate interchange, 4-lanes thereafter, but a traffic and revenue study by Wilbur Smith showed that with a $2 toll the project would only attract max 20k v/d in the early years (and max 38k v/d by 2015), justifying only 4-lanes and interchange ramp connections only to I-95 south at the difficult western end. The VDoT project manager told us that the department expected the road to carry 90k v/d by the design date so they designed the interchange to massive dimensions with 2-lane ramps and the bridge over the river 8-lanes with 4 full lane-width shoulders. FD/MK filed a detailed proposal for 4-lanes, smaller ramps and at I-95 only ramps south. They are currently in discussions with VDoT trying to negotiate a project that the toll will support while leaving the option open to widen everything and add ramps later so that the full VDoT plan could eventually be realized. There is some local opposition from people on the presently rural eastern side and the Henrico County Industrial Development Authority voted Oct 17 96 against supporting the project (4/3). FD/MK had hoped the HCIDA would participate in raising loans for the project but it is now looking at USC-6320 non-profit status and seeking state infrastruture bank money. Rough cost estimate for the project is $250m. 19 houses along the right of way have to be acquired and demolished. 50 acres of wetlands mitigation is required.

Runway tunnel: The Richmond Airport authority persuaded the engineers designing the road to depress it toward its eastern end because they plan a new main runway over the top of the highway sometime before 2010. A bit west of this possible runway bridge over the toll road there could be an interchange to a southern extension of Airport Drive providing a direct connection to the airport from the toll road. But since this is not included in the enviro clearances and probably is not immediately justified, FD/MK will leave this to be built later. (Contact Bill Axselle 804 965 9172, Larry Moore VDoT 804 786 6753)