Traffic on the James River Bridge is running differently this weekend.
That’s after V-DOT admitted mistakes by closing two of the three crossings at the same time a few weeks ago, which caused a back up that people were stuck in for hours.
It’s to allow traffic to move across the bridge, as the grid deck work goes on.
It appears strange when you first hop on the bridge, simply because you’re going Southbound in the Northbound lanes.
“In one way it was, because you’re so used to being on the other side when you’re coming back this way. but now, it kinda throws you off a little bit.” Said James Taylor.
The road closed signs that you see mark the spot of where the traffic pattern begins. The new bit of pavement right there is where the median used to be, and you can see the traffic crossing over it eventually heading southbound, just on the northbound side of the bridge.”
From here, there’s one lane in each direction separated by yellow dividers, until you cross over the grid deck and it’s back to normal.
Peninsula traffic shares the road just before the grid deck, then return to normal at Huntington Beach.
It’s what V-DOT decided to do, after the massive back-ups seen on 64 and 664 several weeks ago.
It’s when both the HRBT Eastbound and JRB Southbound were closed completely.
It gave drivers only one option to get from the Peninsula to the Southside, those who could go anywhere at all.
Mike Albright of Hampton remembers that all too well.
“Where I was heading was all the way in Smithfield, over by Battery Park. Normally that’s a 25 minute drive, that turned in to about four and a half hours.” Said Mike Albright.
Definitely not a recurring nightmare with traffic flowing over the James River Bridge, and all three crossings open for that matter.
The current grid deck work is scheduled to last a total of 7 weekends, according to VDOT, but this traffic pattern will be in place until five o-clock Monday morning.
“Definitely better than last time with all the traffic.”
