Concurrently with the foregoing studies, the Committee, through the City of Richmond, retained the firm of White, Weld & Company of New York, to act as financial advisors, and the firm of Wood, King, Dawson & Logan, also of New York, to provide special bond council. After exhaustive study, these two firms collaborated in recommending that enabling legislation be enacted to provide for a separate authority as the best means for bringing the proposed project into reality.

The cost estimates in the 1966 report Richmond Expressway System for engineering, right-of-way, construction, legal, administrative and contingencies, were: Riverside Parkway, $7,406,000; Powhite Parkway, $11,585,000; Beltline Expressway, $26,706,000; and Downtown Expressway, $45,274,000; for a total of $90,971,000.

The final as-built costs came to $135.5 million for the whole system: $20.7 million for Powhite Parkway, $51.2 million for I-195, and $63.6 million for the Downtown Expressway.

Total initially proposed system - 13.78 miles (Powhite, Beltline, Downtown, Riverside).
Total for completed system - 10.71 miles (3.38 Powhite, 3.44 I-195, 3.89 Downtown).

I'll make note, that the 1966 report named the segments differently from how they were named after the expressway system was completed. The Powhite Parkway ran from Chippenham Parkway to the north end of the James River Bridge. The Beltline Expressway ran from the north end of the James River Bridge, along the railroad, and to the I-64/I-95 Bryan Park Interchange. The North Connection Downtown Expressway was the north leg of the delta interchange between the three expressways, the South Connection Downtown Expressway was the south leg of the delta interchange, and the Downtown Expressway ran from the east junction of the delta interchange to I-95 in the downtown.

The naming of the expressways following completion has the Powhite Parkway running from Chippenham Parkway to the I-195 Beltline/north leg of the delta interchange junction at Cary Street, with I-195 continuing to the I-64/I-95 Bryan Park Interchange. The north leg of the delta interchange is a leg of I-195. The Downtown Expressway comprises the south leg of the delta interchange and the Downtown Expressway from the east junction of the delta interchange to I-95 in the downtown.

The article "Richmond Expressway Routes Disclosed", Richmond Times-Dispatch, October 23, 1966, discussed at length the system after the route locations were announced by the city and state for the 4 expressways, and there was a large map of the proposed system. When I visited the Richmond Times-Dispatch archives, I could see that there were numerous newspaper articles every year from 1946 onward about the development of the regional expressway system, which in the earlier years included the development of the north-south Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike which was completed in 1958 and the east-west I-64 which was completed in 1968.

Charles A. Taylor, chairman of the Richmond Metropolitan Authority, said yesterday, "The board of the Richmond Metropolitan Authority is highly pleased that relief from a great deal of our area's traffic congestion has been brought in sight by the two years of energetic work of the trafficways committee which we have inherited".

"It is the belief of our board that a system of expressways will be of inestimable value to the citizens of our community by making it more convenient, more comfortable, more prosperous, and more beautiful. We look forward to working with engineers, financiers, legal experts, administrators and the public to bring an expressway system into being just as rapidly as possible and we are resolved to do our very best to find solutions to the many problems that will face us".

The article then went on and discussed details of each of the four expressways.

The expressway plan was developed during more than two years of work by City Council's Committee on Trafficways. Now the committee's work has been turned over to the Richmond Metropolitan Authority, an 11-member agency created by the 1966 General Assembly. The governments of Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield and the State Highway Commission all appoint representatives to the authority. The final selection of the routes is in the hands of the authority.

The article has a map showing the proposed locations of the four expressways, and it has a photo of George W. Cheadle pointing at an aerial rendering of the proposed expressways near the City Stadium. Cheadle was the City Manager's Aide who was appointed to direct the Richmond Metropolitan Authority (RMA), and he served as its General Manager during its early years, and he held that position from then through the completion of the expressways.

City Expressway System Final Planning

The entire 10.7-mile-long highway system of Powhite, Beltline and Downtown, costly urban expressways with nearly 2/3 of the distance depressed, could have been built by RMA as planned as tollroads if not for worsening national economic conditions, especially major price inflation which drove costs upward. In 1968, RMA advertised for bids on the 10 scheduled projects, and all but one exceeded the engineers' estimates. Under the Authority's financing plan, the projects could not be awarded. That and an unfavorable bond market brought RMA's expressway building plans to an unexpected halt.

The first bond sale did not occur until 1971, at 7% interest on the issue of $51,300,000. This was used to retire $22,000,000 in "Temporary Loan Notes", of which $21,000,000 had been underwritten by the City of Richmond, to finance the construction of the Powhite Parkway and the Beltline Expressway Connector to Cary Street. By this time, the Riverside Parkway had been eliminated from the expressway system plan.

The 1972 General Assembly decided to assign 0.9 mile of the Downtown Expressway (from Davis Avenue to McCloy Street) to VDHT to be built as an Urban System project with 100% state highway funds (no federal funds), thus relieving RMA from building that section as part of its toll revenue bond financed toll road system. It was called VDHT Project 0088, and VDHT administered the project, and it essentially extended the I-195 highway eastward from the southern limit of I-195. Actually Project 0088 cannot be driven by itself without using part of the toll system also, still, the fact that it was built with state highway funds, meant that this lowered the amount of toll revenue bond funding needed for the whole expressway system.

The key item that advanced the expressway system plans was getting the Beltline Expressway added to the national Interstate highway system as Interstate route I-195, thus obtaining approval for financing it with 90% federal funding from the Highway Trust Fund and 10% state highway funding, and thus obviating the former plan to use RMA toll revenue bonds to finance the construction of the highway. This provided for a toll-free I-195, and a considerably lower mileage that was to be built as toll roads; just the Powhite Parkway and the Downtown Expressway were built as toll roads. Source: "Richmond Expressway System Progresses", Virginia Road Builder, September 1974.

The I-195 construction began in May 1971 and the Beltline Expressway portion of I-195 opened on July 15, 1975. The I-195 connector to the Downtown Expressway opened on February 3, 1976 along with 2.7 miles of the Downtown Expressway.

The "Beltline Expressway" name never caught on in public usage, perhaps because the name is not posted on any road sign, and I have not seen it on any commercial maps either, including the early and later RMA maps of the expressway system that were distributed to the public after the system opened. The highway is commonly known simply as "I-195" and local radio traffic reporters sometimes call it the "195 Beltline".

The RMA did indeed build the Powhite Parkway which opened in January 1973, and the Downtown Expressway which opened in 1976, although the 2 southerly ramps to I-95 was opened in 1977. RMA continues to administer these highways today. The Riverside Parkway was cancelled as mentioned before. The I-195 Beltline Expressway was built by the Virginia Department of Highways and Transportation (VDHT) as a toll-free Interstate highway.

I-195 has 6 lanes throughout, except for the 4-lane connector between the Beltline Expressway and the Downtown Expressway. The Powhite Parkway was built with 6 lanes from the south junction of the Stadium Interchange (the spread delta interchange between the Beltline, Powhite and Downtown expressways) to Forest Hill Avenue, and 4 lanes elsewhere; although the highway was widened in 1989 to 10 lanes from the Stadium Interchange to Forest Hill Avenue, and 6 lanes on the remainder of the highway. The Powhite Parkway section from the Stadium Interchange to Forest Hill Avenue includes a James River bridge 1,971 feet long, and in the present 10-lane configuration, this 1.4-mile-long section is the widest highway in the Richmond area. The Downtown Expressway has 6 lanes between the east junction of the Stadium Interchange and US-1/US-301 Belvidere Street, and 4 lanes from Belvidere Street to the elevated I-95 interchange, and the Downtown Expressway Connector to Powhite Parkway (the south leg of the delta interchange) has 4 lanes.

City Expressway System Construction Starts

As mentioned before, in 1968, RMA advertised for bids on the 10 scheduled projects for the Powhite, Beltline and Downtown expressways, and all but one exceeded the engineers' estimates, and under the Authority's financing plan, the projects could not be awarded. The worsening national economic conditions, especially major price inflation which drove costs upward, and an unfavorable bond market brought RMA's expressway building plans to an unexpected halt. The approval in 1969 to build the Beltline Expressway as a toll-free Interstate highway was a major financing breakthrough, and it was placed under construction in May 1971. More favorable bond interest rates were found, and bond issue sales began in 1971, as did construction of the Powhite Parkway and Beltline Expressway. Source: "Beltline Expressway I-195 Spur Built", Virginia Road Builder, October 1974.

There were minimal property relocations on the Beltline Expressway project, including 14 residential dwellings, and 10 commercial and industrial properties. As was said before, it mainly follows the depressed Beltline Railroad, and the elevated northern portion passed through some commercial and some undeveloped areas.

The Powhite Parkway's construction projects cost $17.79 million (source: "Beltline Expressway I-195 Spur Built", Virginia Road Builder, October 1974), and had 2 residential dwellings acquired, as the parkway was constructed generally in the flood plain of Powhite Creek and involved relocation of portions of the creek. As you can see, the "Powhite" name came from the creek that generally parallels the parkway. The Powhite Parkway was completed and opened on January 24, 1973, and it runs from Cary Street to Chippenham Parkway. The median widens out to several hundred feet wide at one point between the main line toll plaza and Chippenham Parkway; it can be seen in the 1966 engineering study Richmond Expressway System that this was originally intended to contain a lake with a scenic overlook and parking area accessed by ramps to and from the left lanes of the parkway. The highway itself was designed and built to accommodate this feature, but I have not yet found any source that documents why it was never developed. The Powhite Parkway has parkway-like design features along much of its length, but it is a full-fledged expressway that allows cars, buses, and large trucks, and it is an integral part of the regional expressway system that handles local, regional, interregional, and interstate traffic. The heavy traffic volumes would seem to make usage of such a median scenic overlook to be problematical.

So the Powhite Parkway and Beltline Expressway projects advanced to construction quickly, due to the above stated conditions of minimal property acquisition impacts and minimal financing problems.

Downtown Expressway Clears Legal Hurdles

The development of the Downtown Expressway had much larger hurdles to cross, with its large-scale property acquisition impacts, its high cost, its impacts to parkland at the north edge of Byrd Park, and its impacts to canal artifacts in the downtown. The canal artifacts in the downtown was the focus of a group of citizen activists who filed a lawsuit in 1973 to attempt to block the construction of that segment of the Downtown Expressway. The lawsuit was filed at the U.S. District Court on January 9, 1973, and rejected by Judge Robert R. Merhige, Jr. on May 8, 1973, and the group appealed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the appellate court rejected the appeal on August 17, 1973. Both of these courts are located in Richmond. The group considered an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but did not file one, and the group publicly dropped any further court action on September 11, 1973. That essentially cleared the way to the awarding of all mainline construction contracts on the Downtown Expressway.

The Downtown Expressway is one of the very few urban highways in Virginia that had large-scale relocations of residences and businesses. There were over 700 residential dwelling units relocated from the path of the expressway, mainly in the Randolph, Sydney and Oregon Hill neighborhoods (this included the north leg of the delta interchange between the three expressways), and there were almost 150 business relocations, mainly in the downtown area and in the area just west of the downtown. After RMA and the City Council approved the location and design of the expressway in 1966, the City Council passed condemnation ordinances so that negotiation with property owners could be undertaken to acquire the properties, and to use the power of eminent domain to condemn a property if a negotiated settlement could not be achieved. Appropriate cash settlements were provided in either case to pay the market value of the property acquired, plus the relocation expenses, plus additional damage payments as deemed necessary. The city housing authority and other city agencies participated in relocating the affected residents and businesses. The acquisitions were begun in 1967 and were completed by 1968 with the right-of-way cleared and buildings demolished.

Richmond, like many other cities in the 1800s, had built a large canal system for commerce, and much of the system was filled in and redeveloped in the 1900s. Portions of the James River and Kanawha Canal system still exist today, and major portions along a 2-mile length in the downtown were restored and reopened in 1999 to pleasure boat and park use. A very attractive long linear urban park is the result, and there are a few other candidate portions that might be restored also.

One branch of the canal system included a turning basin and 2 locks in the area bounded by Canal, 12th, Byrd, and 7th Streets. Due to a number of large commercial buildings including the Ethyl Corporation headquarters complex, and a large state prison complex, the expressway planners found that the least impacting route east of Belvidere Street (US-1/US-301) was to build the expressway between Canal Street and Byrd Street, which parallel each other a block apart. The route used the entire city block width for right-of-way on a depressed 6-lane cross-section with sloped earthen embankments, from Belvidere Street to 2nd Street, and east of there the cross-section narrows down to 4 lanes with retaining walls so that a half-block width of large commercial buildings could be retained. This least impacting route passed over the canal artifacts mentioned above, and these had been completely filled in with earth almost 100 years before, and were being used for parking areas in 1970. Still, the walls of the canal and locks were made of large blocks of hewn stone, and had historical significance even though they were buried underground.

In March 1972, an organization called James River and Kanawha Canal Parks, Inc. was incorporated by a citizen group that wanted to restore this and other portions of the old city canal system into a urban park and tourist attraction, and they lobbied to have the Downtown Expressway terminated at 5th Street, or perhaps even as far west as Belvidere Street, with the cancellation of the extension through the downtown to I-95. This is the group that I mentioned before that filed the lawsuit against the project. The group sued for a court injunction to force the compilation of an environmental impact statement (EIS) pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970 (NEPA). They also argued that the canal artifacts should be considered a navigable waterway protected under the federal River and Harbors Act, needing a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACoE) before the expressway could be built through it.

The defendant's (RMA and other state and federal parties) attorneys successfully argued that since no federal funds were involved in any part of the Downtown Expressway project, that this was not a federal issue and that the NEPA EIS was not applicable. RMA attorneys also successfully argued that the canal artifacts in that five-block stretch were in no way to be considered a navigable waterway, since they were completely filled in and covered with earth, and that the land use of that area had not been canal-related in almost 100 years. Judge Merhige filed a 51-page memorandum opinion and accompanying order, which was designed to provide adequate supporting documentation should the decision be appealed to the appellate court.

The plaintiff's attorneys provided counter-arguments that the project should be considered federal (and subject to NEPA EIS) since the Downtown Expressway connects two Interstate highways, I-195 and I-95, and that the Expressway is essentially an extension of the federally-funded I-195. The plaintiff's attorneys also argued that since the canal had never been officially de-designated from federal status as a navigable waterway, that it should still be considered with that status, and subject to ACoE review and permitting.

The defendant's attorneys successfully argued that those counter-arguments were bogus, since the Downtown Expressway was an independent highway in its own right, even though it was part of a regional expressway system; also, that I-95 in Richmond was a state-funded tollroad (no federal funds were used); also, that the Downtown Expressway is not an extension of I-195, but is a distinct route in and of itself; also, that the canal could not be considered a navigable waterway since it was completely filled in and covered with earth, and that it was missing the most necessary ingredient of all, namely water, and that only through expensive major reconstruction could the canal be restored to a navigable waterway. Also, the EIS process established under NEPA of 1970 was still a new process, and the early 1970s still saw some federally-aided highway projects conceived in the 1960s being granted approval under the grandfathering concept, without an EIS.

Judge Merhige stated at one point while rendering the decision, "The protection of our environment and of our places of historical importance are of utmost importance, yet the decision as to how to protect them must come from the Congress of the United States and the legislatures of the various states. Where, as here, highway planners meet all of the requirements of law applicable to them, nothing further is required". Source - "Judge Rejects Legal Bid To Halt City Expressway", Richmond News-Leader, May 8, 1973.

The legal challenges of the citizen activist group were not supportable based on the rule of law, and as I said, the challenges ended in September 1973. RMA awarded all the Downtown Expressway construction contracts (except the one for the two southerly I-95 ramps) between November 1973 and May 1974. The VDHT Project 0088 was awarded in July 1973.

Construction of Downtown Expressway

Much of the Downtown Expressway is depressed below grade, and over 3 million cubic yards of earth needed to be excavated and trucked to remote disposal sites. The planners decided that this was the most environmentally acceptable way to build a freeway through urban and residential areas. An expressway built at surface level would require the many street crossings to rise on earthen embankment approaches so that they could pass over the expressway on overpass bridges, and those approaches would usually require acquiring many developed properties. An elevated expressway would pass over all crossing streets without changing their grade, but then there would be a large elevated viaduct in and near urban areas, with the associated high visual impact, plus maximized noise impacts radiating for a long distance from the raised source. The depressed expressway would be built far enough below grade so that normally the grade (vertical alignment) of the crossing streets remained the same, with a bridge built so that the street could cross the expressway. With the sound source well below the existing ground level, the noise is radiated upward, providing much less traffic noise in nearby neighborhoods than with the elevated or surface level expressway designs. The depressed expressway also is not visible from ground level from more than about 50 feet away. The depressed expressway does involve major design and construction challenges, since a large amount of surplus excavation needs to be disposed of, and all crossing underground utilities need to be relocated, and an elaborate storm sewer system needs to be designed and built to gather the storm water that accumulates in the expressway trench, and carry it away in underground water tunnel outfalls to local major creeks and rivers. All factors considered, though, the depressed design fits better into the urban environment, than do the others.

A reinforced concrete cover was built over the depressed expressway between 7th Street and 10th Street, to restore connectivity between the heart of the downtown and the James River which is three blocks from the expressway. Landscaping was built over the cover between 7th Street and 9th Street, with an attractive urban park called Kanawha Plaza built over the expressway. From ground level, it looks like a seamless urban surface and the expressway is underground and out of sight. The Federal Reserve Bank tower was built in the late 1970s on the southwest corner of the expressway/Byrd Street and 9th Street. The James Center development built 4 large, tall office buildings in the 1980s just north of expressway in the area of Canal Street and 9th and 10th Streets. In the early 1990s, a large twin office tower called Riverfront Plaza was built on the southeast corner of the expressway/Byrd Street and 9th Street. In 1992, the Expressway Parking Deck opened, which is a 6-story parking garage that RMA built on top of the expressway cover between 9th Street and 10th Street. So a lot of urban development has occurred in the downtown area near the covered portion of the expressway since the expressway opened in 1976.

The large blocks of hewn stone from the walls of the canal and locks, which were removed during construction of the expressway, were taken to an RMA storage area for future use, since they have historical significance. About 100 of them were borrowed to form decorative terraces in an urban plaza next to the Omni International Hotel downtown at Cary Street and 10th Street, when the hotel was built in the early 1990s.

The Downtown Expressway route used the entire city block width between parallel Canal Street and Byrd Street for right-of-way on a depressed 6-lane cross-section with sloped earthen embankments, eastward from Belvidere Street (US-1/US-301) to 2nd Street, and east of there the cross section narrows down to 4 lanes with retaining walls so that a half-block width of large commercial buildings could be retained. The easternmost 0.5 mile of the expressway rises onto a double-decked viaduct with 2 lanes on each deck, and the expressway interchanges with the I-95 James River Bridge, with all ramps on bridge structure, tying into the I-95 bridge's overland section.

West of Belvidere Street, the route typically used the entire city block width (between parallel Cumberland Avenue and Idlewood Avenue just west of Belvidere Street, and west of there between parallel Parkwood Avenue and Grayland Avenue) for right-of-way on a depressed 6-lane cross-section with sloped earthen embankments. On one two-block section near Cherry Street and Idlewood Avenue, there was a narrowing of the right-of-way, and retaining walls were used to reduce the cross-section to a half-block width, to avoid the St. Andrews Episcopal Church and Parochial School in the Oregon Hill neighborhood.

The Downtown Expressway opened with 2.7 miles between 7th Street in the downtown and I-195 and Powhite Parkway on February 3, 1976. On August 25, 1976, the 0.7-mile section between 7th Street and I-95 was opened, although only the two northerly ramps to I-95 opened then. The two southerly ramps with I-95 were delayed by the permitting process where the U.S. Coast Guard needed to issue a permit to allow RMA to build 5 bridge piers in the channel of the truncated end of the old city canal, unused by marine traffic for over 30 years and largely silted in, with or without standing water based on the amount of recent rainfall, but still considered a navigable waterway by the Coast Guard. The permit was issued and the ramps were constructed and opened on September 1, 1977, thus completing the RMA expressway system. The final cost of the 3.4 mile Downtown Expressway was $63.6 million for engineering, right-of-way, utilities and construction. Sources: "Expressway to Open", Richmond News-Leader, February 2, 1976; "Richmond Expressway System Progresses", Virginia Road Builder magazine, September 1974.

There is a spread delta interchange (called the Stadium Interchange by RMA) near the University of Richmond Stadium (named City Stadium when the expressways were built); between I-195, the Downtown Expressway and the Powhite Parkway; each leg essentially provides a through-expressway connection between the expressways. The I-195 Beltline connector to Powhite Parkway has 6 lanes (originally 4 lanes and widened in 1990), and the other two legs of the Stadium Interchange have 4 lanes. Each of the three connector legs of the Stadium Interchange have local interchanges.

The Downtown Expressway has 6 lanes (with a 44-foot-wide median that can accommodate 2 future additional lanes with 2 full emergency left shoulders and a New Jersey Median Barrier) between the Stadium Interchange (easterly junction) and Belvidere Street, and 4 lanes between Belvidere Street and I-95, with the 44-foot-wide median continuing eastward to 2nd Street where it narrows down to 18 feet between 5th Street and the elevated viaduct connector to I-95. The Downtown Expressway connector to the Powhite Parkway has 4 lanes with an 18-foot-wide median, and the portion of I-195 between the Beltline Expressway and the Downtown Expressway has 4 lanes with an 18-foot-wide median. The 44-foot-wide medians have 6-foot paved left shoulders and the remainder grass, and the 18-foot-wide medians are paved and have a New Jersey Median Barrier. The entire portion of I-195 that follows the Beltline Railroad, has 6 lanes, and each roadway has a 12-foot-wide emergency shoulder on the right and a 7-foot-wide emergency shoulder on the left; and retaining walls restrict the possibility of widening with additional lanes. The Downtown Expressway and its legs of the delta interchange, have 10-foot right shoulders. North of the river including the James River Bridge, the Powhite Parkway has 10-foot right shoulders and 6-foot left shoulders; south of the river it has a paved median with a New Jersey Median Barrier, and 10-foot grass right shoulders.

Powhite Parkway

The 10-mile-long 4-lane VA-76 Powhite Parkway Extension was built by VDOT from 1986 to 1988, and it is a VDOT-administered toll road that cost $89 million to build, and it extends the RMA Powhite Parkway westward into Chesterfield County, ending in junctions with the VA-288 beltway and VA-652 Old Hundred Road. The mainline toll plaza is 1/2 mile west of Courthouse Road, and the automobile toll has been $0.75 since the highway opened in November 1988. The 2.8 miles of VA-288 between US-360 and VA-76 was funded and built as a part of the Powhite Parkway Extension program, and VA-288 is toll-free.