Introduction and Background:

Near the Town of Wytheville, VA, there is an 8-mile stretch of road where two major interstates, I-81 and I-77, overlap. In this area, truck traffic has recently increased from a projected 15% to up to 40%. For safety reasons, VDOT has come up with various alternatives to separate these two major roadways.

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is currently evaluating design proposals for the re-alignment of the eight-mile long overlap of Interstates 81 & 77 near the town of Wytheville, VA. For the planning and design study, the Virginia Tech Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and VTDEVELOP are working to create 3-dimensional visualizations of the existing roadway and the proposed alternatives.

As the project director of VTDEVELOP, I am in charge of the creation of these visualizations. This class project is an opportunity for me to investigate the usefulness of GeoView for the Wytheville scenarios


Parties Involoved:

  • NASA Digital Earth team at Virginia Tech (VTDEVELOP)
  • Center for Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech (CPAP)
  • The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute at Virginia Tech (VTTI)
  • The Urban Affairs and Planning Department of Virginia Tech (UAP)
  • The Department of Agriculture and Applied Economics at Virginia Tech
  • The VA Center for Innovative Technology (CIT)
  • The Virginia Department of Transporation (VDOT)
  • Hayes, Seay, Mattern, & Mattern (HSMM) in Roanoke, VA
  • The Town of Wytheville
I77_VA_FG.jpg


VT Logo


Goals:

The traffic changes in this area will have direct economic and development effects on the town of Wytheville and the surrounding areas. The main goal of this part of the project is to create 3-D, interactive visualizations of proposed routes for the new I-81/I-77 interchange in Wytheville, VA that can be presented to all parties involved, including the people of the Wytheville community.





Current Visualizations:



Links to Related Sites:

  1. VDOT - Virginia Department of Transportation Web Page
  2. VTDEVELOP - The NASA Digital Earth project at Virginia Tech (VTDEVELOP) Website
  3. Roads to the Future - Gives a brief history of the project and some site photos.
  4. I-81 Web Page - History of the Interstate and some photos.
  5. HSMM - Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern Web Page
  6. CIT - The Virginia Center for Innovative Technology Website.