The Virginia Department of Transportation says this afternoon that I-64 East at Nine Mile Road in Henrico County has reopened after having been closed because of an overturned dump truck that spilled its load of gravel.

The National Park Service says a section of the Colonial Parkway will be closed for at least four months while a bridge damaged by a boat is repaired.

Traffic delays of more than two hours forced the concert to start more than an hour late so people could get to their seats. Cars backed up in parking lots for several hours after the show, too. And there were plumbing problems inside FedEx Field.

Q:Per your response in the July 5 Street Beat column regarding my frustration with the roundabout or circle or whatever the heck it is at Midlothian Turnpike and Winterfield Road. Were you able to find out anything about what’s going on with the development (or lack of development!), and whether there might be a chance that the “roundabout” can go back to being a “straightabout”?—Gail C.

The Virginia Department of Transportation says today the ramp from Interstate 95 north to Route 288 (Exit 62) in Chesterfield County remains closed because of an overturned tractor trailer. Crews are in removing the trailer from the ramp, which is expcted to reopen about 1 p.m.

The choke point where West Broad Street intersects Pump Road-Pouncey Tract Road in western Henrico County may loosen its grip in two years. The Henrico County Board of Supervisors voted last night to authorize construction of the North Gayton Road extension from Broad Street to Pouncey Tract. Tim Foster, director of public works, said the project is expected to open in 2011 with 9,600 vehicles per day.

The Exit 76 ramp on southbound Interstate 95 south is now open after an earlier granite and fuel spill from a tractor-trailer wreck, the Virginia Department of Transportation says this afternoon.

Two train cars carrying used railroad ties caught fire in Richmond this afternoon, prompting the engineer to disconnect the locomotive, authorities said. About 40 firefighters hurried to the scene just north of the intersection of Hermitage Road and West Leigh Street shortly before 3 p.m., dousing the flames as a cloud of smoke billowed above.

A new traffic study shows congestion in the Richmond region holding steady over time, with area residents spending all of 20 hours a year in peak-hour bottlenecks. That works out to about four minutes per day. True, the figure is an average, and some commuters in Short Pump or the Hull Street Road corridor might idle in tie-ups considerably longer. (On the other hand, some commuters therefore must endure “congestion” lasting no more than a few seconds.) The variations don’t change the two facts: (1) Congestion in the area is remarkably mild, and (2) it isn’t getting any worse.

Interstate 85 southbound through Brunswick County reopened this afternoon after workers finished clearing the spot where an oil tanker overturned, blocking most lanes for much of the day, the Virginia Department of Transportation said.

A new study confirms what Richmond motorists who have been to other cities already know: Traffic in Virginia’s capital region isn’t all that bad. Yesterday’s report by the Texas Transportation Institute said the average Richmond-area driver wastes about 20 hours per year stuck in traffic.

The overall cost of U.S. traffic congestion in 2007 reached $87.2 billion, more than $750 for every traveler.
The amount of time wasted in traffic totaled 4.2 billion hours, nearly an entire workweek for every traveler.
After Los Angeles (70 hours per year wasted in traffic) and Washington (62 hours), the most congested metro areas were Atlanta (57), Houston (56), San Francisco (55), Dallas-Fort Worth (53), San Jose, Calif. (53) and Orlando, Fla. (53).

The Richmond area’s traffic congestion is holding steady, with the average driver wasting about 20 hours per year, according to a national traffic study released today.

The Virginia Department of Transportation says it’s going to do more work on the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.

A Mechanicsville man injured in a crash last month has died from his injuries at VCU Medical Center. Virginia State Police said Ronald A. Hairfield Jr., 37, was injured in the 7:50 p.m. wreck June 13 on Cold Harbor Road, just north of Boatswain Road, in Hanover County. Police said he was driving north, passed another vehicle, and went off the right side of the road as he re-entered the northbound lane. The vehicle rolled onto its passenger side and caught fire. Hairfield was wearing a seat belt. He died Wednesday.