Evacuation Routes

View recommended routes from VDOT

Click here for the routes recommended for each city by VDOT.

Closure plan for bridges, tunnels, ferries: The Virginia Department of Transportation has developed safety guidelines for closing bridges, tunnels and suspending ferry service operations. Wind speeds, storm surge, rain bands and other conditions are monitored and evaluated during all storm levels to determine if and when roads should be closed and ferry operations should be suspended.

  • The Midtown Tunnel will close and the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry will suspend operations when a storm produces sustained winds of 39-mph and is forecasted to intensify.
     
  • The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, James River Bridge, Downtown Tunnel, Coleman Bridge and High Rise Bridge will close when an approaching storm produces sustained winds of 45-mph and is forecasted to intensify.

Designated evacuation routes:

  • U.S. Route 460 West
  • U.S. Route 58 West
  • State Route 10 West
  • U.S. Route 17 North
  • U.S. Route 60 West
  • Interstate 64 (Could be reversed)
  • U.S. Route 13 North, north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (Not an evacuation route).

 

Consider using the evacuation route that is closest to your home.

 

When would Virginia reverse traffic on I-64?

  • Only the governor can issue the order for an I-64 lane reversal.

Here’s where the I-64 lane reversal would be in effect.

  • Beginning just east of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel at mile marker 273, ending at the Interstate 295 interchange east of Richmond at mile marker 200.
  • No traffic will be allowed to travel east on Interstate 64 from just before the HRBT. All I-64 eastbound lanes and ramps between Norfolk and Richmond will be closed to eastbound traffic to I-295 east of Richmond.
  • The entrance to the reversed lanes on I-64 is in Norfolk, just east of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, at mile marker 273.
  • There will be only two possible exits for traffic traveling on the reversed lanes between Norfolk and I-295. They are: Exit 234 in Williamsburg (Route 199) for gas, food, lodging and hospitals and Exit 205 in Bottoms Bridge for gas and food. There will be a comfort station on I-64 near Jefferson Avenue (mile marker 255) and the safety rest areas in New Kent County, which are accessible without exiting the interstate.
  • Drivers who exit the reversed lanes at Exit 234 or Exit 205 cannot re-enter the reversed lanes. They can re-enter I-64 using the regular I-64 westbound ramps.
  • Peninsula traffic will utilize I-64 westbound, entering and exiting regularly.


It is important that residents be ready to evacuate immediately if instructed to do so.

 

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