A Sea Of Red

For those of you who have gotten stuck in this mess, need I say anything? The roads in perfectly fine shape, but no, go waste all our money and do it all during rush hour traffic.

jbock13 wrote:during rush hour traffic.

Lynchburg has "rush hour traffic?"

alabama24 wrote:

jbock13 wrote:during rush hour traffic.

Lynchburg has "rush hour traffic?"

Yeah, my thoughts exactly.

You know what I mean. I can tell you other than Greensboro, Lynchburg has terrible traffic for the size of the city.

But your main point is dead-on. Every election cycle in Virginia, one of the main points of contention is the "Transportation" budget. Yet since I've lived here, I've always been perplexed at Virginia's addiction to ripping up and repaving perfectly good roads. This makes absolutely no sense to me. They just paved this exact same section of 460 LAST YEAR. Unbelievable.

on the other hand- we go about 10 years between repavings up here. And I'm not joking.

roads are horrendous. Potholes you can lose a car in. And sometimes do. Sinkholes aren't uncommon either.

The thing that frustrates me, around here they'll tear up and pave a road in fine condition while there's other streets that haven't been paid in years and need it badly.

Yeah, that's my gripe too. I mean 460 in Montvale is in terrible shape, but they're not about to begin fixing it. Northern Virginia steals all our transportation money anyway, and even when there's some left over for us, they use it for useless projects.

Not only that, but yesterday they jammed up where the business route and the main road meet in New London. It made traffic stop completely, it took 20 minutes to get 2 miles. However, all of that could have been prevented removing the lane blockage 50 feet ahead. That's right, when you merged off the exit, you had to get in the left lane, only for about 50 feet, then you could merge back. That alone caused a 2 mile backup.

I'm glad to know we can agree on something alumnus

In my time in VA, I have only rarely found a pothole on a major road. We have by far, the best paved roads of any state I have traveled through. It may be because they unnecessarily tear up good pavement and redo it every 6 months in a total overkill move. But my statement remains true for whatever that's worth.

PA is probably the worst.

LUconn wrote:In my time in VA, I have only rarely found a pothole on a major road. We have by far, the best paved roads of any state I have traveled through. It may be because they unnecessarily tear up good pavement and redo it every 6 months in a total overkill move. But my statement remains true for whatever that's worth.

PA is probably the worst.

You haven't driven around in Richmond much. IMO, North Carolina has the best roads.

That's true. I only drive through 1 or 2 times a year. But I'm in nova a lot which has horrible traffic, and I would assume the wear that goes along with that.

jbock13 wrote:Yeah, that's my gripe too. I mean 460 in Montvale is in terrible shape, but they're not about to begin fixing it. Northern Virginia steals all our transportation money anyway, and even when there's some left over for us, they use it for useless projects.
Not only that, but yesterday they jammed up where the business route and the main road meet in New London. It made traffic stop completely, it took 20 minutes to get 2 miles. However, all of that could have been prevented removing the lane blockage 50 feet ahead. That's right, when you merged off the exit, you had to get in the left lane, only for about 50 feet, then you could merge back. That alone caused a 2 mile backup.

I'm glad to know we can agree on something alumnus

QFT...for all their griping about how they don't get back for what they put in, the numbers show that they get a larger percentage of the transportation budget than what they contribute to it (don't have time to locate the article).

I also agree that we do have some of the best paved roads of any state in the country.

NC's roads used to be terrible but now they're pretty good. Except for interstate 40 west of 77. Hold on for your life.

really? i worked in western nc near asheville the past 2 summers and i-40 didnt seem that bad to me, as far as bumpiness goes. but then again, I'm used to delaware roads where everything is always under construction but still has potholes everywhere, all the while deldot posts a ridiculous deficit.

on another note, will the us-29 corridor ever become an interstate? i know its been planned for awhile but its really really annoying to try and get to an from anywhere around here.

I 40 from Hickory west to Asheville is not bad. As a matter of fact they have paved a lot of that area in Hickory that was terrible at one time.

flamesfan30 wrote:
on another note, will the us-29 corridor ever become an interstate? i know its been planned for awhile but its really really annoying to try and get to an from anywhere around here.

Well, we are FINALLY going to get a charlottesville bypass, but think of how many little driveways and streets that are that branch off of 29. Seems nearly impossible to be able to close all of those off or make on and off ramps to make it an interstate.

I take 460 all the way from Lynchburg to my house when I visit my parents. I do wish that they would find other roads to work on though (I mean 29 runs right through the middle of Lynchburg all the way to Greensboro, NC)

The main roads are usually in good shape in VA. It's the heavy travleled secondary rds that are 2 lanes that get left behind. I dont know but don't the individual county or cities decide what projects to do. There seems to be sections of roads that get retopped frequently while others get the patchy tarry mess with rocks thrown on top to fill in the holes. It's always the same counties that take care of their section and the same counties always let their part go. The other main issue is that VDOT throws down way too many chemicals too often that destroy the roads and sidewalks when it's not necessary. The reason they do it is that everyone fusses and whines if the roads have any bit of snow on them.

I thought NC's roads were a bit rough in many areas, just my opinion. Everyone knows not to buy gas in NC when traveling thru...it's always 20-30 cents higher than VA or SC

I'd let them pave all they want if they'd give us the access points on 460 again. They managed to turn a 2 mile trip to see the grandparents to over 9 because of the turnarounds. What a joke

4everfsu wrote:I 40 from Hickory west to Asheville is not bad. As a matter of fact they have paved a lot of that area in Hickory that was terrible at one time.

Between Hickory and Statesville is in terrible shape. Unless they've done something since then.

jbock13 wrote:You know what I mean. I can tell you other than Greensboro, Lynchburg has terrible traffic for the size of the city.

wrong, it has a terrible infrastructure design which makes adjusting to it very difficult....