The Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) serves as the blueprint for the region’s transportation system, identifying all regionally-significant transportation projects for the Hampton Roads metropolitan area.  LRTPs have planning horizons of at least twenty years and are updated regularly in order to reflect changing conditions and priorities.  The current LRTP for Hampton Roads has a planning horizon of 2040, and is being updated to the year 2045.

A major component of the LRTP update process includes identifying projects that help achieve the region’s vision for the transportation system.  For the 2045 LRTP, HRTPO staff collected over 300 candidate projects from regional stakeholders.  These candidate projects will be evaluated using the HRTPO Project Prioritization Tool- a tool that evaluates projects based on technical merits and regional benefits, helping regional decision-makers in selecting the best projects for the 2045 LRTP.

Spatial Overlay Analysis

As part of project evaluation and prioritization, candidate projects are assessed for various factors, including, but not limited to:

• Accessibility to key economic sectors (e.g. military, port, tourism), high population and employment density
• Accessibility for low-income and high unemployment areas
• Vulnerability to projected sea level rise
• Potential environmental impacts

To perform some of these spatial assessments, a spatial overlay analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) – a framework for gathering, managing, and analyzing data – was done.  Specifically, this analysis involves overlaying candidate projects with various geographies to determine potential interactions/impacts.

The results from this spatial overlay analysis will be input into the HRTPO Project Prioritization Tool.  Looking ahead, project prioritization scores for each of the growth scenarios being analyzed as part of the 2045 LRTP will be completed around the Fall of 2020.  The 2045 LRTP is scheduled to be adopted by the HRTPO Board by June 2021. 

The table below lists the geographies that were included in the spatial analysis. 

Geographies for 2045 LRTP Spatial Overlay Analysis

Maps were produced for each analysis, categorized by roadway, transit, and active transportation candidate projects.  These maps are available in the draft Hampton Roads 2045 Long-Range Transportation Plan:  Regional Needs report.  Below are some example maps from the spatial analysis.

Data Sources for the spatial analysis:

• Regional Data:  Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, Hampton Roads Localities, and Transit Agencies
• State Data:  Virginia Department of Transportation, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Virginia Department of Forestry, Virginia Department of Historical Resources, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Virginia Economic Development Partnership
• National Data:  National Park Service, Federal Aviation Administration, National Wetlands Inventory, Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data, United States Geological Survey

For more information on some of this data, please visit HRGEO.  HRGEO is an open GIS data portal for the Hampton Roads region.  The website is maintained by the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC) with support from the HRTPO and Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD).