Albemarle Supervisors briefed on Ivy Road pipeline projects

Soon after the Albemarle Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning for 525 residential units on Old Ivy Road in March 2023, the Virginia Department of Transportation launched a study to identify potential road projects that might alleviate existing and future traffic congestion in the area. 

“The study area for the Ivy Road corridor study includes Ivy Road from Ednam Drive on the west to Alderman Road in the city of Charlottesville to the east,” said Jessica Hersh-Ballering, a transportation planner with Albemarle County. “It also included the us 29 250 interchange as well as Old Ivy Road.”

The study has resulted in a series of recommended improvements and Supervisors got a briefing on October 2, 2024. 

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 

“Broadly speaking, this is a pretty complicated corridor where any one improvement is going to have both upstream and downstream impacts,” Hersh-Ballering said. “These recommended improvements were carefully considered so that they work together to achieve those study goals.”

One of the constraints in the area is a narrow underpass on Old Ivy Road under the railroad tracks. Hersh-Ballering said the county’s preference is to maintain that as two-way traffic. 

“One-way alternatives have also been proposed by the consultants, but these alternatives have had mixed responses from both the focus group and the broader public,” Hersh-Ballering said.

Supervisor Diantha McKeel is a member of the Regional Transit Partnership which includes a representative from the University Transit Service. She said that UVA is seeking to purchase smaller buses that can fit through the underpass.  

“That’s always been one of the problems we had getting transit with all of the students and the university folks living along Old Ivy Road, they couldn’t get the transit buses underneath so that’s really good news,” McKeel said. 

McKeel wanted to know how likely funding might be for these projects given that they all work together. Hersh-Ballering said the county is not currently pursuing any funding for these improvements because they weren’t ready in time for the most recent round of Smart Scale funding. 

Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley said she supported the recommendations. 

“It looks a little complex in some areas, but it seems to address a lot of issues, and hopefully we can get the funding for that, because it would greatly improve the safety of that area,” LaPisto-Kirtley said. 

Samuel Miller District Supervisor Jim Andrews pointed out that the University of Virginia owns much of the property to the north of Old Ivy Road around the underpass.  

“I’ve noticed changes in the university’s properties that I want to make sure they’ve looked at or if they’ve understood and what effect they have,” Andrews said. 

Andrews said it appeared that there is a roadway connecting Old Ivy Road to Leonard Sandridge Drive, but that’s not the case. The historic building that houses the UVA Center for Politics is being renovated and when complete its entrance will be on Leonard Sandridge Road and the existing connection to Old Ivy Road will be closed. (read a story from September 2023)

Hersh-Ballering did not answer the question directly and said UVA officials have been in attendance at all of the meetings. In fact, Hersh-Ballering herself was at the August meeting of the Land Use and Environmental Planning Committee, a closed-door body that replaced the public Planning and Coordination Council in late 2019. (read the “minutes”)

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