Transportation planning manager updates Charlottesville City Council on existing projects

Second of two parts

As Charlottesville seeks a future with more residential density with fewer places for people to park their personal vehicles, the city must first build the capacity to build transportation projects to give people options on how to get around.

On May 6, city officials briefed the City Council on a recent past where too many projects worth dozens of millions of dollars were taken on with very little sign of progress.

“The point of the matter is that we’re trying to turn this around in a way that one, we can deliver the projects that we’ve already committed to, but two, we can handle the projects that we know everybody wants us to be able to take on,” said City Manager Sam Sanders. 

Sanders said the city will be more selective in what projects it takes on and he’s less interested in finding someone to blame. 

“There are so many different ways and places I could point but it’s just not important at this time,” Sanders said.

The first half of the presentation talked about the structure. In the second half, transportation planning manager Ben Chambers talked about specific projects. These can be divided into streetscapes, trails, intersections, and bridges. 

The city has six current streetscape projects, four of which are in the design and right of way phase. The other two are projected out into the future. Three of the four that are in design date back to the first Smart Scale round with funding awarded by the Commonwealth Transportation Board in 2016. 

“We started these projects back in the mid-2010’s,” Chambers said. “These are larger scale efforts looking at corridors, our major corridors in the city, and looking at turning them into a place. Making bike/ped improvements. Upgrading traffic patterns. Basically beautifying these corridors and making them welcoming to everyone.” 

One of these is the Emmet Street Streetscape, which means the city’s funding assists the University of Virginia with their massive redevelopment of the Emmet / Ivy Corridor. The Fontaine Avenue Streetscape will also help provide better connectivity between UVA’s central campus and the new $300 million Manning Institute of Biotechnology. 

Chambers began his list of updates with the East High Streetscape, which is one of those projects that dates back to 2016. It has been delayed in part due to the need to finish the Belmont Bridge first. 

“It goes from Market Street down to Locust Avenue,” Chambers said. “This will give us new multimodal improvements along that corridor and make it safer for bikes and pedestrians. We’re looking at a winter completion in 2026 for this project. Currently it’s in the right of way phase.”

Fontaine Avenue is at the 60 percent design phase and negotiations to acquire right of way have not begun. There will be sidewalks on both sides of the road, bike lanes, and dedicated parking spaces. Chambers said this is expected to be completed in the summer of 2026. 

There are two phases for Emmet Street. The first goes from Ivy Road to Arlington Boulevard and Chambers said the right of way phase is underway now. He anticipates a completion in the spring of 2026.

“The second phase, the funds come online this year so we’ll begin design work on that,” Chambers said. “Overall we’re looking at a corridor between Barracks and Ivy that will have improved bus stops, a shared use path, landscaping, pedestrian improvements at crossings, and a tunnel that goes underneath the railroad tracks there between Ivy and Barracks Road.”

Loosely connected is a shared-use path that will climb halfway up Barracks Road from Emmet Street. Chambers said this is also in the right of way phase with an anticipated completion in fall of 2026. 

Another streetscape is on Ridge Street with Smart Scale funding being awarded in 2020. This project combines two other into a single project and design work will begin this year. 

In 2021, City Council canceled the West Main Streetscape and committed local money to the work going on at the moment to expand Buford Middle School. 

Council also canceled a funded Smart Scale project at the intersection of 10th and Grady and the Commonwealth Transportation Board discussed the matter in September 2022. Even without the $6.1 million, Charlottesville is proceeding with an improvement at this location anyway.

“This is a much simpler version where we’re just trying to make sure that there are pedestrian crossings that are available, there are [Americans with Disabilities Act] ramps that are available,” Chambers said. “A much smaller project, a much smaller footprint, but should make things a little bit more accessible for everyone.”

The project is currently in the right of way phase and Chambers said he anticipates completion next spring. Further to the east on Preston Avenue, there’s a project to make similar upgrades at the intersection of Preston and Harris Street. 

Other projects:

• There’s another intersection project underway at Monticello Avenue and 2nd Street SE that will reduce the lengths of the crosswalks. Chambers said he anticipates that will be completed by the fall
• A shared use path on Rugby Avenue is anticipated to be completed in early fall of this year. 
• A pathway between Washington Park and Madison Avenue is expected to be completed in early fall of this year
• The Meadowcreek Valley Trail is expected to be completed in the summer of 2025
• A traffic signal is going back to the intersection of Rose Hill and Rugby Avenue but this time with better signals for pedestrians on their way to school. You may remember this was converted to a four-way stop in late summer 2022. (archived press release)
• A bridge that crosses the U.S. 250 bypass at Dairy Road will be replaced by the summer of 2027 
• Total completion of the Belmont Bridge is expected in June but the final blacktop can’t be done until it is warm enough overnight for it to settle

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