Heading backward (southeast) with VA 10 EB on the Smithfield Bypass to US 17, courtesy Lou Corsaro.
Across the James River with US 17, and technically with VA 32, which is uselessly multiplexed with other routes from downtown Suffolk all the way up here to its Hampton end. VA 32 gets no signage once US 17 and 258 join, so I'll pretend it's not even here. Coming down the north side of the bridge yields the only good view of the old crossing, now a pier stub.
How did I get both photos and video (click) northbound? Simple - I-664's NB tube was closed, so in order to clinch that route I had to circle around and come back south on 664. In that time, the NB tube had reopened, only to be beset by another accident from an impatient driver and closed again, so I had to come back north this way once more, for two crossings instead of the intended zero.
Technically, VA 32 EB is also straight ahead, but no one cares. I don't think the separate EAST in the first photo was an oversight, but rather Hampton had one way of making the black assembly signs and that was with only enough room for a single banner. It could have made quite a bit more sense to leave the banner blank, like Rhode Island, or, really, to just omit it entirely. They must have a second way of making signs, too, because they did manage to put the banner on its own background instead of making a normal banner like everyone else. The black-outlined shield on the right overhead sign is a style still used by South Carolina but abandoned by other states, as demonstrated by the newer and uglier sign to the left. All of these signs are Hampton jobs, being one of the Seven Cities that don't belong to any county and that are responsible for signing routes within their jurisdiction.
More of the same as I head down the ramp.
Continuing across the railroad tracks to the end of the concurrency, where VA 32 silently and unremarkably ends.
As the black signs become more varied in style, you notice that suddenly, east is right and west is left, which normally doesn't happen when you're heading north. In fact, that SOUTH 169 to the left actually starts out heading due north (and really should be EAST 169 for that reason). Clearly, US 258 has curled around southward in its final death spiral, courtesy Lou Corsaro.
