VDOT installs congestion warning system on I-64

Interstate 64 connects the metropolitan areas of Charlottesville-Albemarle and Staunton-August-Waynesboro with thousands of vehicles making the journey across Afton Mountain each day.

On May 20, the Virginia Department of Transportation began live-testing of a new warning system intended to keep the roadway flowing between Exit 99 and Crozet.

“This project installed a congestion detection system on Interstate 64 west on Afton Mountain along with additional message boards to alert drivers about slow traffic ahead,” reads VDOT’s project website. “The system is designed to detect vehicle speeds and automatically post an alert on the message boards when most of the traffic is traveling below a certain speed.

The system will become fully operational later in the summer.

A related project will soon see improved lighting installed at exit 99 with a total of 35 new full-cutoff mounted lighting fixtures intended to shine more light on the roadway but not the night sky.

“A visual impact study, conducted in coordination with the National Park Service, concluded that the lighting planned with this project will have minimal impacts on the majority of the adjacent natural areas, including the Blue Ridge Parkway, Skyline Drive, the Shenandoah National Park,” reads that project’s website.

You can read that study here. Look up the project on VDOT’s Six Year Improvement Plan.

The congestion warning system cost $3 million and the lighting project cost $2.9 million.

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