Travel from Grassfield to ODU involve tunnel? (Norfolk, Chesapeake: house, to buy)

[catant]

Hi all,

I'm looking to purchase a home in the Chesapeake area. In researching the various school districts in that area, it looks like Great Bridge, Hickory, and Grassfield are best. I have been told that traveling through tunnels in the HR area is a pain. I will be working at ODU. Could someone speak to what the commute will be like from each of those 3 school districts to ODU? Would it involve tunnels?

Thanks for any help.

[Steph22679VA]

Hello, Catant! Congratulations on your job at ODU, I think you will enjoy it. I recently graduated from there, although I am slightly older than your average college student (30). Those are wonderful areas you have listed and do have some of our better school systems in the area. You do not necessarily have to commute through a tunnel to get to ODU from those areas. There are a few ways you can avoid it, but they will take you a ways out of your way. However, in rush hour through the tunnels, it may be worth it to you. May I ask where you are moving here from? The way you view our tunnel traffic can be relative depending on how bad the traffic is where you currently live. I've gotten used to it because I have lived here my whole life (minus a few short stays elsewhere), but it can be quite a pain especially when you're running late to work! Also, the traffic will depend on what times of day you will be going to and from ODU. Your biggest pain may be traveling down the road that ODU is on (Hampton Blvd) around 230-500pm. The traffic is ridiculous then because of the naval base being down the road. Feel free to ask me more questions... I can answer a lot more about Norfolk/ODU area than I can about Chesapeake but I can at least try! Stephanie

[Ginzu]

Catant,
Tunnels can be a pain in the Norfolk area. If you have to move between Chesapeake and downtown Norflk during high traffic times, I would shoot up 464 to West Brambleton to Hampton Blvd (no tunnel involved). If you leave Chesapeake through Deep Creek then you would head up hwy 17 to the mid-town tunnel which dumps you onto Hampton blvd. Either way you worse traffic depending on the time of the day will be getting out of Chesapeake (either the Deep Creek bridge, Steel bridge, the Great Bridge or hwy 168/464/64 merge.)

Moderator cut: No advertising, please

Good luck,
Ginzu

[catant]

I'm currently living in Buffalo, but have also lived in Houston (very bad traffic) and Orlando in the last 5 years. The traffic in Buffalo compared with Houston seems non-existent. I expect there to be a commute from Chesapeake to ODU, which is okay for me because I want to live in a surburban area. My schedule will be flexible enough that I could decide when best to go to and leave work. Chesapeake sounds like a really nice community, particularly if my husband and I plan to start a family down the road. Now that we have decided on the general area we want to buy a home, we're looking at which of the three school districts (i.e., Great Bridge, Hickory, Grassfield) is best in terms of commute to ODU. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks so much.

[rtandc]

Originally Posted by catant

I'm currently living in Buffalo, but have also lived in Houston (very bad traffic) and Orlando in the last 5 years. The traffic in Buffalo compared with Houston seems non-existent. I expect there to be a commute from Chesapeake to ODU, which is okay for me because I want to live in a surburban area. My schedule will be flexible enough that I could decide when best to go to and leave work. Chesapeake sounds like a really nice community, particularly if my husband and I plan to start a family down the road. Now that we have decided on the general area we want to buy a home, we're looking at which of the three school districts (i.e., Great Bridge, Hickory, Grassfield) is best in terms of commute to ODU. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks so much.

The only difference in travel time you will have from most areas within these 3 school zones not counting the 5-15 minutes north/south of travel time on the bypass is pretty much going to be the travel time it takes you to get from the home you pick out to the Great Bridge bypass ...you will also hear this road called the Chesapeake expressway or Oak Grove connector, whatever you want to call it is all the same road and it runs from the NC state line (the southern part does have a toll) all of the way to where it connects/turns into interstate 464 which will run you straight to downtown Norfolk.(no tunnels just a very busy bridge)

Traffic can be pretty heavy in the central section of Great Bridge to include the Battlefield Blvd/Cedar Road/Dominion Blvd (route 17) area. So when looking for a house in any 3 of these school districts that should be something that is always in the back of your mind

Here is a map of the high school zones if you dont have it....
Chesapeake Public Schools

[ellar]

We live in the Grassfield school district and travel to downtown Norfolk every day. There are multiple ways to go. In the morning we don't have any trouble getting out of Chesapeake and into Norfolk. 464 is nearly always moving and the secondary roads don't back up as much. The only exception to that is Dominion Blvd. We never take that road during rush hour--morning or afternoon. When avoiding that road, the only traffic backup may be when we get to the end of 464 and have to cross a bridge into Norfolk. There the traffic coming out of the tunnel that goes to Portsmouth tends to cause backups, but it's usually not that bad. In the afternoon, there are always more problems. There is so much construction and so many road closures in Norfolk that the area can gridlock in the afternoon when everyone is trying to get onto the highways. In Chesapeake, Battlefield also backs up. The time you leave work can make a big difference. I find that around 5:15pm-5:30pm is the worse time to leave. Early or later is better.