On May 18, 2023, the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO) Board approved the Hampton Roads Congestion Management Process: Part III – Congestion Mitigation report. This new report identifies the causes of traffic congestion and recommends improvements to the highest ranked congested freeways and arterial roadways in Hampton Roads.

The Hampton Roads Congestion Management Process (CMP) is an on-going systematic process for managing congestion that provides information and analysis on multimodal transportation system performance and on strategies to alleviate congestion and enhance the mobility of persons and goods regionwide.

10 Freeways and 21 Arterials were classified as CMP Congested Corridors as shown in the following tables. The CMP Congested Corridors were selected based on the CMP Ranking Criteria and methodology provided in Part II – System Performance.

Each CMP Congested Corridor was analyzed in detail to determine:

• probable causes of congestion
• peak hour traffic characteristics
• recent and future projects
• congestion levels
• possible application of CMP mitigation strategies
• candidate congestion mitigation strategies.

Refer to the full CMP report Part III – Congestion Mitigation to view the detailed analysis for CMP Congested Corridors.

HRTPO staff encourages local planners, engineers, and decision makers to use the information included in this CMP when developing project proposals for the most congested areas.  Once these proposed projects are developed, data from the CMP will be input into the Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) Project Prioritization Tool in order to assist in the ranking of projects.  Finally, the highest priority projects should be programmed for construction via the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and the process can begin again.

HRTPO staff will continue to monitor the performance of the regional transportation network and refine the Congestion Management Process.  Roadway data – such as traffic volumes, travel speeds, peak hour factors, roadway characteristics, safety data, and truck volumes – will be updated continuously in order to assist with future CMP report releases and other HRTPO planning efforts. 

For more information on the HRTPO Congestion Management Process, please visit HRTPO’s website at https://www.hrtpo.org/page/congestion-management/.