City of Norfolk
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1 City Challenges and Vision
The promises of the coming advances in transportation afforded by vehicle technology are
astounding. Changes in vehicle technology alone will improve safety and mobility in our city. But,
we have not been waiting idly – we have been on a continuous course of infrastructure,
operational and design improvement, and have more on the way; changes that are going to help
now, and facilitate the integration of the new. Our vision for Norfolk is innovative, yet
thoughtful, targeted, and bounded by rationality, as it should be. Our vision for this project is as
well, facilitating specific Norfolk-supportive outcomes, while strongly supporting national
research and development. We believe we can make strides for us and for the nation.
Norfolk is a coastal city blessed with extensive waterfront, a temperate climate, beautiful historic
neighborhoods, rich history, and tremendous diversity. Hampton Roads and the Elizabeth River
provide the best year-round harbor on the east coast, the world-class resource that has been the
driving force for this community for almost 400 years, and supports the world’s largest Naval
Base and several large commercial ports. Those very blessings, in addition to being the
constrained, older urban core city of the region, are also the source of major challenges for the
City.
Challenges
Norfolk cannot escape its relationship with the Atlantic Ocean, the Chesapeake Bay, the
Hampton Roads and the Elizabeth River, with the projected sea-level rise and resiliency
challenges they bring.
Three expressway tunnels; an interstate drawbridge; at-grade, under and
overpass railroad crossings; Light-Rail Transit; local/express bus and ferry
services; two interstates; and a Continuous-Flow Intersection – we have a
challenging transportation system as well. More details on our city, our transportation system,
and our wide range of aggressive resiliency initiatives are provided in Sections 3, 4, 5 and 8.
Almost without exception, if you ask people that live or work in Norfolk what they like least
about being here, one of their top two answers would be “traffic congestion”, inferring not only
delay but safety concerns. We want to change that, for the better and for good. But even as we
seek to change what is, issues are emerging that will dramatically impact our city and way of life.
As simple as “reducing traffic congestion” sounds, our vision requires context, and rests upon a
foundation of critical principles, that are important to our city, and many others. First, we are not
a rich city – in fact we are somewhat hampered with a large proportion of federal and state lands
that provide no local tax revenue. Our choices for spending must be very pragmatic and
targeted toward truly meaningful local benefit. Our solution will not be expensive to maintain
and operate, and it will leverage private and cross-needs support to maximize benefit-to-public
cost. Second, our planning focus is on “Vision 2100”, a major City planning initiative. We must
begin to face the 21
st
century challenges of being a historic, low-lying coastal city. We are
A Robust
Test Platform
