Transportation is afternoon topic at Albemarle Supervisors meeting

One of the largest impacts the government can have on people’s lives is the provision of infrastructure for people to get around the community. The six members of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors will learn the latest on transportation projects on Wednesday afternoon for their first meeting of October. 

They meet at 1 p.m. in Lane Auditorium at the county’s office building at 401 McIntire Road in Charlottesville. (meeting info) (agenda)

The first item of business is a proclamation recognizing National 4-H Week. 

“More than 1,800 students aged 5 to 19 are involved in 4-H in Albemarle County and Charlottesville City,” reads the proclamation. It’s worth it to take a look at a big quote. 

“4-H addresses issues facing youth wherever they live – in inner cities, suburbs, and rural communities and helps break barriers by focusing on learning-by-doing, building self-esteem, leadership, and citizenship skills, and focuses on critical issues such as protecting the environment; and, provide programs on food and nutrition, science and technology, natural resources, substance abuse prevention, animal and plant sciences, career education, community pride, citizenship, and leadership.”

After that there will be consideration of two special exception requests related to home stays. One is at 1234 Carter Street in Crozet and the other is at 4975 Blue Fox Farm. Albemarle’s homestay ordinance requires a lot of active discussion by the Board of Supervisors. 

Then an afternoon of transportation begins with the return of a specific conversation. What plans are in place for new infrastructure on and around the Old Ivy Road corridor to accommodate the pending construction of 525 units of currently undeveloped land? 

Supervisors unanimously approved a rezoning for that level of intensity for the Old Ivy Residences community on March 1, 2023 as I wrote about at the time. Around the same time, the Virginia Department of Transportation began a “pipeline study” to evaluate potential infrastructure to address concerns of area residents. 

“County staff will present the recommended package of improvements for the Ivy Road Corridor to the Board of Supervisors for feedback,” reads the staff report. “The improvements included in this package were identified by the study and are expected to work synergistically to achieve the study’s goals of improving safety, reducing congestion, improving access, and enhancing multimodal accessibility/connectivity.” 

None of the projects were far enough along to be considered in this year’s round of Smart Scale funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation, so there’s no action item for Supervisors to vote on. Here are some of the ideas:

• Convert Ivy Road and Boars Head Road signalized intersection into a roundabout
• Convert Ivy Road and Canterbury Road signalized intersection into a roundabout
• Close the median in sections of Ivy Road to limit access 
• Add bike and pedestrian infrastructure and a two-way signal at the railroad underpass at the eastern end of Old Ivy Road
• Remove left turns from Ivy Road onto Old Ivy Road
• Add a shared-use path on Old Ivy Road. There is a proffer related to this for the Old Ivy Residences development.
• Additional acceleration and deceleration lanes onto U.S. 250 bypass 

After that discussion, there will be a presentation on the quarterly transportation planning report put together by Albemarle staff. (read the reports)

In the past two months, I’ve not had a chance to write a whole lot of stories related to transportation so this report is a good chance to catch up with a lot of things. Some of this may spill over into Charlottesville as well. 

Classification changes suggested for area roadways

Among those unreported stories is a statewide update of how the Virginia Department of Transportation classifies roadways. This happens after every U.S. Census. In August, the Metropolitan Planning Organization voted to approve a resolution signing off suggested changes. The current set of definitions date back to 2014 and you can take a look at a guide on VDOT’s website.

“Functional classification outlines how travel can be channelized within the network in a logical and efficient manner by defining the part that any particular road or street should play in serving the flow of trips through a highway network,” reads the guide.

As part of this update, Charlottesville has made several requests. For instance, Hillsdale Drive would be upgraded from a “local road” to a “major collector.” 

“Major Collectors in Urban Areas provide land access and traffic circulation within residential neighborhoods, commercial, and industrial areas,” VDOT’s guide continues. “These collectors distribute trips from the arterials through the aforementioned areas to their ultimate destination, collect traffic from local streets, and channel it to the arterial system.”

The portion of Cherry Avenue from Ridge Street to Roosevelt Brown Boulevard would be upgrade from a major collector road to a “minor arterial” 

“In urban areas, Minor Arterials interconnect with principal arterials, augment the urban principal arterial system, and provide service to trips of moderate length at a lower level of travel mobility than principal arterials,” reads another definition in the guide. 

Charlottesville also requested several other local roads to be promoted to minor collector. These include:

• Chesapeake Street in the Woolen Mills neighborhood
• East Market Street 
• Franklin Street
• Water Street Extended
• Prospect Street from 9th Street to Bailey Road in the Fifeville neighborhood
• Bailey Road in the Fifeville neighborhood

Some questions I have: Do the people who live in these neighborhoods know their roadway is being reclassified? Why did Charlottesville make these requests? Will this bring in additional funding for improvements? 

A look at the next round of Smart Scale projects

If the conversion of the intersection of Hillsdale Drive and Hydraulic Road to a roundabout is any indication, there is a fundamental disconnect between the number of people who drive on area roads and those who pay attention to the planning process. That project was funded by Smart Scale, one of the Virginia Department of Transportation’s pathways to infrastructure money.  

Applications for the sixth round have now been filed and Albemarle’s submissions are:

• A double roundabout at the complicated intersections of Rio Rio Road, Hillsdale Drive, Northfield, and Old Brook
• Convert the intersection of U.S. 29 and Plank Road into a “restricted crossing u-turn” otherwise known as an R-cut
• Convert the intersection of U.S. 250 and Old Trail Drive in Crozet into a roundabout with signals for pedestrian crossings
• A series of projects that came out of a “pipeline” study of Barrack Road between Emmet Street and Georgetown Road
• Convert the intersection of Fifth Street and Interstate-64 into a diverging diamond (technically a submission of the MPO)
• Several improvements on Pantops (also MPO)
• Additional projects on Barracks road to complement the ones listed above (also MPO)

Other items from the transportation report:

• Albemarle continues to negotiate on hiring a consultant to do the work related to the Three Notched Trail Shared Use Path. The county was a $2 million planning grant for this purpose in August 2022 as I wrote at the time. 
• The conversion of Free Bridge Lane into a pedestrian-bike promenade will take place before the end of the year. Supervisors approved $15,000 at their meeting on August 21 to pay for gates and signage for a one-year pilot program. They approved the idea in March 2023 as I wrote at the time.
• A through truck restriction is in place on Plank Road between U.S. 250 and U.S. 29. Supervisors asked for this earlier in the year and the public process resulted in approval by VDOT’s commissioner.
• Albemarle County has finally updated the AC44 page with new information about phase 3, though no dates are given. This paragraph is the result of seeing an update on AC44 in the report on page 7.  For all of the stories I’ve written on AC44, check out Information Charlottesville. 

Details on funded transportation projects

• Conversion of the intersection of Rio Roadway and the John Warner Parkway into a roundabout is expected to start construction in the Fall of 2025. This is part of one design-build contract known as Bundle #2. 
• Also expected in late 2025 is construction on improvements at the intersection Belvedere Boulevard and Rio Road. This is also part of Bundle #2. 
• The intersection of Route 20 and Route 53 will be converted into a roundabout as part of Bundle #2. Construction on this is currently anticipated for late 2026.
• Another proposed roundabout is at Old Lynchburg Road and 5th Street Extended, also part of Bundle #2. Construction is expected in late 2025. 
• Another Bundle #2 project that was funded with a different revenue source is the intersection of of U.S. 250, Route 240, and Route 680 into a roundabout. This project is scheduled for spring 2025. 
• Another project funded through Smart Scale is a park and ride lot at Exit 107 in Crozet to be served by transit lines. 
• Construction of a shared use path on U.S. 29 from Seminole Lane to Carrsbrook Drive funded through Smart Scale is expected to begin in the fall of 2025.
• Changes to the Fontaine Avenue and U.S. 29 bypass are still being considered and a design public hearing has not yet been held. I have written about this extensively including a vote in February by the MPO to proceed with signalized intersections. The report notes that this project is being bundled with two other projects. One is the District Avenue roundabout that Charlottesville City Council wants to fully access the Meadows neighborhood, as I wrote about in August. Also of significance is that this project will be bundled with the Fontaine Avenue Streetscape, a project Charlottesville received funding for in 2016. The city’s website is very outdated. The report notes construction is expected in early 2026, but that design changes may delay. Keep in mind the Manning Institute of Biotechnology is expected to be occupied in late 2026. 

There’s more in the report. I’m already at 1,500 words and we’re only on the second item for the Board of Supervisors! After the report from Albemarle’s transportation staff, the Virginia Department of Transportation will give its report. (quarterly report) (monthly report)

Before you go: The time to write and research of this article is covered by paid subscribers to Charlottesville Community Engagement. In fact, this particular installment is from the September 30, 2024 Week Ahead edition of the newsletter.