The Virginia Department of Transportation has given notice that the stretch of Hydraulic Road between the U.S. 250 bypass and U.S 29 will be closed to local traffic for much of the summer beginning on July 8.
“A contractor for the Virginia Department of Transportation will close the signalized intersection of Route 743 (Hydraulic Road) and Hillsdale Drive in the City of Charlottesville to convert it to a two-lane roundabout with pedestrian crosswalks on all four approaches,” reads a press release sent out this morning.
The prime contractor is Curtis Contracting of West Point, Virginia. Wallace Montgomery of Hunt Valley, Maryland, is the prime designer and CES Consulting LLC of Warrenton is in charge of quality assurance and inspections.
The closure will give time for construction crews to work on the roundabout which is part of a series of projects planned in the area. The contractor has until August 13 to complete the work and there is a bonus if they complete the work before then.
“The Design-Builder can realize a full incentive payment of $500,000 for early removal of the detour,” said Will Stowe, a project manager with VDOT.
In the meantime, there are several detours.
“Drivers westbound on U.S. 250 (U.S. 250 Bypass) who wish to use Hydraulic Road to access U.S. 29 (Seminole Trail) will instead travel farther west to U.S. 29,” the notice continues. “Southbound drivers on U.S. 29 who want to use Hydraulic Road to access U.S. 250 will instead continue south and take the exit to U.S. 250 east.”
During the detour period, Hydraulic Road will still be used to access businesses along the way.
This project is just one component in a series of work planned for the Hydraulic Road area.
“After the roundabout is functional, our focus will be on building the pedestrian bridge foundations,” Stowe said.
The bridge will span U.S. 29 connecting Stonefield in Albemarle County with commercial properties in Charlottesville at Zan Road. Stowe said superstructure work should be underway in the fall.
Next up are changes to the intersection of U.S. 29 and Hydraulic Road to eliminate left-hand turns from the latter onto U.S. 29.
“We will complete the signal work at 29/Hydraulic and final paving in late fall of this year or winter, but may push final paving of the project into spring/summer of next year,” Stowe said.
The projects were funded through VDOT’s Smart Scale program.
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