NEW KENT — Warning time is over.
Now, if you speed in the Interstate 64 construction zone in New Kent County, you just might end up with a fine arriving in the mail.
County deputies began using hand-held LiDAR, or light detection and ranging, cameras on July 11 following numerous accidents caused by excess speed in the area where I-64 is being expanded. During a one-month period, the New Kent County Sheriff’s Office clocked 3,664 speeding drivers.
At first, drivers received warnings, but starting Aug. 12, drivers clocked at 11 mph or more above the posted speed limit started receiving civil violation notices for $100.
New Kent Sheriff Lee Bailey said the 3,664 violators were captured during just 29.5 hours of enforcement.
While deputies are currently using hand-held devices to capture speeders, a vehicle-based unit will arrive over the next few weeks, Bailey said. Numerous signs are posted along the I-64 corridor warning motorists that the area is “speed photo enforced,” with flashing signs that signal the speed limit is 60 mph when construction is going on. Normally, the speed limit is 70 mph on the that stretch of interstate.
The sheriff’s office adopted the new speed camera technology on lanes in the work zone to tackle an 85% rise in serious wrecks since construction work began. The cameras’ remote sensing method uses lasers that emit light pulses to determine distances and speed and is able to monitor each lane of travel “individually and with more accuracy than a traditional radar,” Bailey said.
New Kent deputies are partnering on the project with Blue Line Solutions, the private sector firm it works with on school zone speed cameras. The sheriff’s office says that initiative reduced speeding outside county schools by about 95%.
The Virginia Department of Transportation announced the start of the I-64 gap widening project between Henrico and James City County in Nov. 2023. Much of the 29-mile section is in New Kent County, where drivers encounter frequent lane closures for construction work.
Rather than moderating driver behavior, traffic cones appear to have resulted in frustration and speeding, leading to serious crashes, causing injuries, deaths and high-speed police pursuits, according to law enforcement officials.
“Speeding on I-64 is incredibly dangerous and, unfortunately, has already proven deadly in our county,” Bailey said previously.
The sheriff’s office has recorded a “dramatic increase” in vehicle crashes on the section of I-64 that falls within the county since the $756 million improvement started. In 2023, deputies recorded 240 vehicle crashes on the interstate; 84 of them were single-vehicle crashes, 129 two-vehicle and 27 involved three or more vehicle.
“In 2024, that number grew 85% to 444 vehicle crashes in our section of I-64 — 129 single-vehicle, 190 two-vehicle and 125 three or more vehicle crashes,” Bailey said.
Bailey said the sheriff’s office hopes to help everyone “understand the safety dangers that speeding brings to our roads and positively change speeding behavior in our county for all.”
David Macaulay, [email protected]