A few week’s back, Sen. John Miller (D-Newport News) proposed in a column in the Daily Press moving container traffic off of I-64 by banning container trucks from the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel and constructing a container tunnel from the Norfolk International Terminals (on the east bank of the Elizabeth) to Craney Island (on the west bank — Sen. Webb, you know where that is now, right?).
You might recall that Rep. Thelma Drake (R-VA02) worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to create an eastward expansion of Craney Island, enabling Norfolk to become, potentially, the largest commercial shipping port on the east coast. So, Miller’s proposal of connecting Craney and NIT makes perfect sense.
Miller’s proposal costs only a quarter of the $4B called for a third crossing and would likely make Route 460 the main thoroughfare for shipping — which would assure its expansion; an expansion which is good for several reasons, not the least being hurricane evacuation.
Miller writes:
Moving all containers to Craney Island, or even further west, would allow us to ban all container trucks from the HRBT and require that they use Route 460 in and out of the area. This could lead to I-64 being a tourist corridor and Route 460 being a freight corridor. Removing these trucks from the HRBT would increase the number of cars that could use the tunnel, and it could negate the need for the very expensive third crossing, which, under its present configuration, limits the ability of Craney Island to expand in the future.
Miller is coming up with some great ideas in his first year in the Senate. And this idea is just sound government. Hopefully, other legislators in Hampton Roads will see it the same way. And, hopefully, politics won’t get in the way of good government.
