North on I77

[BaseballCoach (Rev A)]

Anyone headed north on I77 crossing the VA/WV border? You may want to do a little research on the best detour. A tractor trailer fire in the East River Mountain tunnel yesterday has the northbound side closed, probably a few weeks. Southbound is flowing normally.

[Arty]

Thanks for the heads up!
My brother and his wife are headed back to Kentucky after spending a week with us in Outer Banks, NC.

We are only 3 hours from OBX and got home about 2:30...I checked in here at 3...and immediately called my brother. They had just come through Big Walker...and he said traffic was starting to slow down just 3 miles outside Big Walker Tunnel...I told him to get the F out of there! They took an exit and headed down 81. He had no clue it was closed. He was heading right into it!

You saved him from being tied up in 20 miles of dead stopped traffic!

Thanks!

[BaseballCoach (Rev A)]

I'm a little surprised that he got close to Big Walker. My understanding was that they were blocking all northbound traffic where 77 & 81 split in Wytheville. When the fire started everyone hit detour on their GPSs which routed them on 52N over East River Mtn into Bluefield which is a very narrow and winding road. There were several trucks that got stuck, impeding one of the detour routes.

[Thumper]

Nice save ... bof'a youse!

[BaseballCoach (Rev A)]

That section of road is overcrowded and the flow can be very slow even with no accidents or construction. Where 77 & 81 meet, people are too stupid to merge into the correct lane. They stay where they are until the last second then everyone is changing lanes at the same time. I've seen that crap back up traffic several miles.