I'm heading from Cleveland, Ohio to Virginia Beach on Wednesday and wish to miss that mess at 495 and south 95 towards Quantico. If I leave here around 6am that puts me in the mixing bowl at around 1:30 or 2:00pm taking the usual 76-70-270-495-95 route.

I've thought of hooking I81 south at Hagersbush (ahem, I mean Hagerstown) down to I66 east to route 17 south at Marshall down to I95 affectively bypassing the mixing bowl.

Or hooking I81 south at Hagerstown down to I64 east. But that seems to be a long way out of the way.

So I need some advice DCMM folks.

Thanks,

Les

 

Mapquest says the I95 way is 572 Cleveland to Va Beach
621 I81 to Va Beach

I guess it all depends upon if the extra 53 miles is worth not sitting in the traffic?

 

I have done 66 to 17 to miss 95 to get to Norfolk. Mostly just because I don't like highway driving. 17 is not a bad road. You can make decent time on it except when you come into built up areas with traffic lights.

You might want to take a chance on a Wednesday at that time, you might be OK going through the bowl. If it was a Friday or a weekend day I would say stay way clear. We headed that way a couple weeks ago on a Tuesday and were fine (we hit it about 12:30 pm)

Any thoughts from folks who live down that way.

 

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Les, why did you start two threads on the same thing?

*The other thread in OT has been merged into this one by MINIclo.

 

Don't give in to your fears! Just run through the bowl.... Really it's not that bad!

Or, take 15 across Point of Rocks, connect to 7 in Leesburg, to the Dulles Greenway to the Fairfax County Parkway (VA7100) to Ox Road to I-95. Or take Fairfax County Parkway to Fullerton Road to I-95...

 

Well, I wasn't sure if I should do it in DCMM's forum or OT so I did both. If I violated a site guideline, I apologize and will do a better job of reading all the guidelines (not just a cursory glance).

I've done the Bowl many times and more often than not it's a mess. So I can get the FCP from where? Hagerstown?

..Les

 

Ok, how about picking up 522 and run that down to 17 and then 95?

...Les

 

I tried 17 once from Cleveland to Va. Beach. Took a bit too long for me.

 

Other options may be 70 East to 32 South to Route 3/301 to Richmond, which will bypass the mixing bowl.

The other route which I have taken is 70 east to 32 south to rt 97 south to route 50 toward Ocean City to Route 13 South. The traffic at the Bay bridge may be ok at 2pm. This route takes you across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel which is expensive but very scenic. It was longer mile to my house but about 20 minutes shorter because I bypassed the mixing bowl. I live 15 minutes east of rt 70/270.

 

Exit I-70 onto US-340/US 15 in Frederick (just before you would normally exit onto I-270) Follow the signs for US-15 (South) Leesburg. Take US-15 past the Leesburg Outlets and VA-7 and get onto the Dulles Greenway. The Dulles Greenway will become the Dulles Toll Road (VA-267) right at Dulles Airport. Take the Fairfax County Parkway (VA-7100) exit from the Toll Road, turn right at the top of the ramp.

Depending on how big your aversion to the Mixing Bowl is, you have two options from here... You could take the exit for Ox Road (VA-123) turn down through Occoquan and catch I-95 South just south of the Prince William County Line, approximately 7 miles south of the Mixing Bowl...

Or, you can take Fairfax County Parkway until it becomes the Franconia-Springfield Parkway (VA-7900) and exit at Backlick Road. Follow Backlick south until you hit the ramp for I-95 south... This will put you on I-95 about 3 miles south of the Mixing Bowl...

I may live in CA now, but it wasn't that long ago when I used to travel that entire area pretty regularly, and long gave up caring about most delays that gordian knot could throw at me...

Although, there was that time when the fireworks truck overturned on the ramp from I-95 North to the Outer Loop...

 

I've done the bowl and the I-64 route and 17. I-64 is probably your best bet. I drove that way coming from Great Lakes IL. Avoid the bowl at all costs. I lived in Springfield right there where it all meets and still have yet to understand what creates the mess in that area on a weekend. Don't go that way, you won't get out of it until your well past Triangle VA. I thought the I-64 route went fairly smoothe myself.

 

we ended up taking the 76 to 70 to 522 to 17 to 66 to 17 to 95 (Fredricksburg) to 295 to 64 to Chesapeake (Virginia Beach) etc......took us 9.5 hours (standard elapsed time via "regular" route with no traffic issues) and there were no traffic issues at all on a Wednesday. Whilst on the way we heard on the radio about a large wreck at the 270/495 junction just below Rockville. So we were quite glad to be on the "alternate" route.

I would recommend the "alternate" to anyone.....Les