virginia pe

To be honest, it doesn't do much for me. I don't dislike it, but it doesn't grab me, either. FWIW, NFK is the Amtrak identifier for Norfolk. But for air travel, NFK is the airport at Norfolk Island, a tiny speck in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia. Recently, Carnival Cruises incorrectly used photos of Norfolk Island in advertisements announcing their return to Norfolk, VA. It's easy to tell the two Norfolks apart, though. Norfolk, Virginia does not have palm trees dotting its beaches, with mountains in the background.

Partly, the new president of NSU wanted to put her mark on the project, and not just inherit the project from her predesessor. She wanted to establish her credentials that she could stand up to the city. Bust mostly, it was about money. She was thinking she could shake down HRT and get some concessions, benefits, and money from HRT. And she was right. At the time NSU was extorting this money, construction was just starting on the light rail project. It was cheaper for HRT to pay off NSU than to risk delays in the project, and NSU knew it. I suspect NSU owns the vacant lot at Brambleton and Park Avenue, where the gas station and car wash used to be. Whether they develop that site themselves, or sell it to a developer, they can now market it, not as "convenient access to light rail" but "exclusive stair and elevator to light rail".

It may be the right decision, but it should not have been necessary. The original plans for the light rail station had the stair and elevator at the proposed location of this new stair/elevator. NSU fussed about the stair location, even though the previous president had approved it. They said it would create a security problem. Norfolk changed the station to place the stairs on the opposite side of Brambleton, even though any fool could see that it would create safety problems for students trying to cross six lanes of traffic. The changes to the stair, and other changes to the station that Norfolk agreed to just to placate NSU, cost the taxpayers about one million dollars. Now Norfolk will spend more taxpayer dollars to correct a bad decision that should never have been made. I think Norfolk State should foot the bill for this.

    The Pavilion is the box office. I don't know that they need all the administrative space included in the Pavilion, but they definitely need a new box office. The current box office is below the plaza level and is nearly impossible to find when walking up to Scope on the plaza level. There is just one small sign directing you downstairs. There are also severe handicap accessibility issues. I don't mind the Pavilion, but I think it is too big. In the renderings, it competes with Scope itself.

 

The Generic Theater that used to be in 21st Street is now located at Chrysler Hall, in the basement under the main building. It's a pretty nice venue, but it can be difficult to find. I don't know if they would consider relocating again. It would probably depend on the rental rates.

Is this still the latest working plan for SPQ?

Why criticize CN? The Waterside project was not CN's project, it was Harvey-Lindsay's. CN was just a player on the team. Clark-Nexsen did not complain, and they did not claim that they were treated poorly. The simple fact is CN has to move. Their lease is up, and their current building is inadequate for their needs. In addition, they are no longer a suburban-office-park architectural firm. As the 132nd largest firm in the country, they are a central-business-district company. They are not going to move into someone else's building; they want to go into a building that they designed. Since Norfolk was not accommodating, what other choice did CN have? Obviously, the powers that be feel they made the right choice for Norfolk. But shame on them for acting like a jilted lover because CN is moving to Virginia Beach.

Somehow, I am not impressed. Or enthused. Or optimistic.

Not necessarily. It may have been released by the developer, trying to gain public support in order to influence City Manager Marcus Jones and his committee that will evaluate all of the proposals.

The print edition of the VP has a downtown map that makes it more clear.

It's an interesting analysis, but no one ever said the light-rail would be profitable. It was never intended to be. There is no question - light rail is government-subsidized transportation. But then, so is I-264. As you stated, the big payoff is Transit-Oriented Development. More generally, light-rail is a land planning tool. It helps to minimize urban sprawl by concentrating development around transit stations. Please avoid the the mindset that light-rail must be pay for itself to be sucessful. This is a red-herring the anti-light-rail people use.

"They" being Norfolk State University. The original plans for the NSU station was to have the stairs and elevators on the NSU side of the bridge over Brambleton. NSU insisted that they change it because they felt light-rail would adversely affect security at the campus. Something about the NSU station would provide easy access to the criminal element that rides light rail. HRT paid almost $7 million to accommodate NSU's demands and brought frogger to Brambleton Blvd. Here's an article.

The ODU monorail was never intended to be a means of transportation. It was a test track to test new technology. If it had been successful, it would have put ODU on the map in some engineering and research circles. Originally, all or most of the funding was to come from the developer, not the university. It was a good opportunity for ODU. Unfortunately, they were not able to overcome problems with the new technology (the train gyrated too much for passenger comfort as it moved down the rail using magnetic levitaiton), and the project failed.

The reason there are not more tall buildings in Norfolk is strictly economic, not engineering. There has been no demand for anything higher. We can overcome the soil conditions by driving piles. Most tall buildings are on pile foundation or caissons, so that is nothing unique to Norfolk. The only law requiring extra reinforcement is the building code, but that too is the same for virtually every city.

That's only half the equation. Remember, the train runs both ways. Virginia Beach also does not want to make it easy for locals from Norfolk to crowd their precious tourists on the beach. Locals who would ride the Tide to the beach probably will not spend much money at restaurants, and almost certainly will not be renting hotel rooms. If you are not spending big bucks at the beach, Virginia Beach doesn't want you there. Virginia Beach is not opposed to light rain because of the cost of the train. They are opposed to it because of how it will affect their tourism-based economy, both coming and going.

According to today's VP, Hampton Roads now has four Fortune 500 companies: Smithfield Foods, Smithfield (216) -$11.2 billion annual revenue Norfolk Southern Corporation, Norfolk (261) $9.5 billion Dollar Tree, Inc. Chesapeake (390) $5.88 billion Amerigroup, Inc. Virginia Beach (396) $5.8 billion Wal-Mart stores tops the list with $422 billion in annual revenues. Exxon Mobil was second with $355 billion.

Not true. You can walk to your car in the park-n-ride lot and drive to your home in Virginia Beach!

The light rail trains will be open to the public this weekend - 10:00 to 2:00 Friday and Saturday. Be the first in your neighborhood to sit in one of the light rail cars! Click here for VP article

The city of Norfolk has considered a new arena, and has decided it doesn't fit in their plans (or their budget) for the next decade or two. Light rail, the Westin convention center, and the Half Moone cruise ship terminal are all contributing to that decision. The site where they envisioned a new arena when they were wooing the Charlotte Hornets and the Rhinos is now the Wells Fargo Center. In short, the city has given up on the idea of a new arena, according to this VP article from 2007. I don't see anything that has happened in the last four years that would change that, except possibly the Westin project being put on hold. I'm sorry to throw ice water on the hopes of many of you on this forum, but dreaming of a new arena in Norfolk is just not realistic at this time.

The convention market is very competitive because every city has a convention center they are trying to fill. It's a buyer's market. A group that is planning a convention can afford to be very particular about the amenities it wants. To be competitive, a convention center needs to have a hotel attached to it, or immediately adjacent to it, and it needs to be a 4- or 5-star hotel. The Sheraton and Hilton are only a block away from Waterside, but that is too far when trying to market a convention center to a convention organizing committee. Unless, of course, the city is as stupid as Virginia Beach, who built a $200 million convention center that they are having trouble marketing without an adjacent hotel. They apparently thought the Hilton at 31st Street would serve convention goers at the convention center on 19th Street. After they opened the new convention center, they came back to city council and said "Oops!. Now we need to build a convention hotel next door to make the convention center competitive with other markets."

I still feel the only way light rail will go to the naval station via ODU is if Virginia Beach opts out. Most of the people who want to go to the naval station on light rail are in Virginia Beach, and they do not want to go to downtown Norfolk to get there. If Virginia Beach goes for light rail, then light rail will eventually go to the naval station along the Military Highway / I-64 corridor. If Virginia Beach refuses light rail again, then Norfolk will have to decide if they want to extend light rail to ODU and the base along Hampton Boulevard. Personally, without Virginia Beach, I do not think Norfolk has the guts to tackle another light rail project on their own.

Well, you were right. It was useless. But thanks for posting it anyway.

So that it can safely remain in operation during construction of the parking garage.

It sounds good - demand it be corrected. A private company would not pay again. But it's not that simple. We don't know who is at fault here. The contruction contractor did get the bonus, but are they responsible for the settlement? If so, was there a testing lab that was to assure compliance with the design? Why did the testing lab not catch it? Is the engineer at fault? He designed the work. The article said he used a standard design. Should he have gone beyond a standard design/ Or did the city instruct him to use the standard design in an effort to reduce design fees? Or maybe it was the geotechnical engineer who investigated the soil before the design got started. Why did he not note the poor soil? Or did the city choose to not do geotechnical exploration along the entire length of the system to save money. Also, if it was the geotechnical's fault, the standard contract for geotechnical services limits their liablilty to the amount of their fee, which is probably not enough to cover the costs of the corrections. Or maybe it was a geotechincal problem, and it simply did not show up in the geotechnical report. It is not practical to investigate every square inch of ground for a project, so sometimes poor soil conditions are not found until the start of construction, or (heaven forbid) after construction is completed. EIther way, the contractor will be paid for "unforeseen soil conditions". It is one of the most common reasons for construction change orders. So, for the city to demand it be corrected, they would have to identify the responsible party, which could be difficult. And it is possible the city is partially at fault. It may require litigation, but if it goes to court, the only winners are the attorneys. And there is a chance that the city would lose in court. So in the end, the city would pay. And it would not be any different if it were a private company. IT's one of the realities of construction work.