Charlottesville continues to move forward with several long-delayed transportation projects

The City of Charlottesville has struggled for many years to deliver transportation projects funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia but City Manager Sam Sanders has pledged to address the issue. 

“This is really just being transparent about where things have been and really what we have been working to overcome,” Sanders said. “Not placing blame on anybody at this point because I’m past that.”

City Council got an update at a work session on November 4 led by Deputy City Manager for Operations James Freas. 

“Tonight’s presentation is really going to be about our overall transportation project portfolio and really is going to, at the end of the day, show how we’re improving our performance relative to that portfolio and also demonstrate what has really come to be a strong partnership with [the Virginia Department of Transportation].” 

In the late 2010’s, City Council applied for and received millions in funding through VDOT’s Smart Scale program which is intended to rank potential projects against a series of criteria. Despite a rule that projects be completed in six years, the City of Charlottesville has failed to break ground on any of them. 

Since then, two projects have been formally canceled and the money turned back to VDOT for use by other localities. The city opted not to make new applications in the past two Smart Scale rounds. 

Cost estimates for all of the projects have increased due to rising construction prices as well as rising land values for acquisition of right of way. The Commonwealth Transportation Board will likely not increase funding for the projects which means the city has to take other steps. 

“One of those strategies is to reduce project scope,” Freas said. “And then the other strategy is to outright cancel some of those projects, projects that had not yet had any funding spent towards their implementation, but canceling those projects so that funding could be redistributed to those projects that we are carrying forward with.” 

Council has already canceled the West Main Street Streetscape and an intersection improvement at Preston Avenue and Grady. A third cancellation is pending before the Commonwealth Transportation Board that would have added a second phase to a project to upgrade Emmet Street.

Freas presented data showing the collective worth of all of the Smart Scale projects came with $55,059,142 in funding. The cost estimates have increased to $71,480,127 leaving a shortfall of $17.7 million. Those figures reflect the reduced scope for projects. 

One of the projects funded in 2016 is the Emmet Street Streetscape from the intersection of Ivy Road to Arlington Boulevard. The University of Virginia owns most of the land on both sides of the street and has plans to build new residence halls on the site of the now-razed University Garden apartments.

“This is an incredibly important project because it’s in partnership with UVA and is improving our, particularly our pedestrian and bicyclist infrastructure on this critical corridor that is heavily used by students, but also by faculty, staff and so on,” Freas said.

This project has increased in cost from the $17.7 million allocated by the Commonwealth Transportation Board to just over $23 million. The University of Virginia has contributed $5 million to this project as well as another Smart Scale project on Fontaine Avenue.  

The Fontaine project has also been reduced in scope taking the cost estimate from an original figure of nearly $18 million to $7 million.

“The original design for this project included fully protected bike lanes on both sides of the street,” Freas said. “The new design keeps us entirely within the existing right of way, for the most part. Includes a shared use path… on one side of the street, which will require removal of parking on that side of the street.” 

Freas said the Virginia Department of Transportation will take over administration of the Fontaine project and will bundle it with work on the roadway in Albemarle County. 

Another project funded in 2016 is the East High Streetscape which Freas said picks up where the new Belmont Bridge left off. That project was also long delayed due to a variety of factors, and take a look at the C-Ville Weekly story I wrote in July.

“So the East High Streetscape project, this picks up where the Belmont Bridge project ends, carries those improvements again, particularly those pedestrian and bicycle facility improvements, all the way around to Locust,” Freas said. 

This project also includes a stretch of Market Street from East High to City Hall. This project has increased in cost from $10.2 million to $15.6 million. That project is now estimated to be completed by the winter of 2028. 

One of the projects with a reduced scope would have seen intersection improvements at Barracks Road and Emmet Street as well as a ten-foot shared use path built to the east up to Hilltop Road. That has now been reduced to a standard six-foot wide sidewalk to eliminate the need for retaining walls to be built and land to be obtained for those walls. 

“All of the improvements, kind of at the intersection remain,” said Brennan Duncan, the city traffic engineer. “The bus stop improvements remain, the pedestrian improvements, pedestrian islands and rebuilding all of our traffic signals and getting better traffic operation at the signal for all modes is still there.”

City Councilor Natalie Oschrin asked if it were too late to consider a different design for the whole intersection. 

“I know we’re so far into the engineering and design of it all but was this ever considered for a roundabout?” Oschrin asked. 

“No,” Duncan said. “And a lot of that goes into the proximity of the existing buildings that were there. In order to get a roundabout here, the right of way required, we would have had to take all of those businesses.”

Another project staff recommends for cancellation would have seen improvements made to Ridge Street and 5th Street SW.

“Primarily the improvements were at the intersection with Cherry and Elliott,” Freas said.  “We were projecting a significant increase in costs and so this is another project within the portfolio that we’re proposing at this time to cancel.” 

One of the reasons for cancellation is that scope reduction might have reduced the effectiveness of the improvements. Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston said he supported the idea of delaying. 

“That’s a pretty intense, ambitious project,” Pinkston said. “So I hope we can come back to that at some point. But it does seem wise to wait.”

Councilor Oschrin said she felt the project was too “car-friendly” and she supported its cancellation.

“To nobody’s surprise, I’m going to definitely champion the bike lane and pedestrian improvements as the best way to reduce congestion and not widening roads to accommodate additional cars, which just induces demand,” Oschrin said. 

Earlier this year at the end of the budget cycle, Oschrin also championed increasing the personal property tax as a way of discouraging car use.

Freas said there are ten other VDOT-funded projects paid for through other programs such as the Transportation Alternatives initiative and a maintenance program called State of Good Repair. The latter is being tapped to cover some of the costs of the $12 million replacement of Dairy Road over the U.S. 250 bypass. 

• There is a project to improve bike and pedestrian safety at Monticello Avenue and 2nd Street with a cost estimate of $1,289,760. This is anticipated to be completed in the fall of 2025.
• There is a project to upgrade the crosswalks at Preston Avenue and Harris Street with a cost of $656,000. This is expected to be completed in the winter of 2025.
• Another project is to add a pedestrian refuge island and other improvements at 10th Street and Grady Avenue to bring the intersection into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This has a budget of $827,235 and is expected to be completed in the winter of 2025. 
• There is also a project to add a new sidewalk on the western side of Hillcrest Road to complete the pedestrian network around the Covenant School. This has a budget of $1,040,000 and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2025. This project dates back to 2011 to around the time the John Warner Parkway was constructed. 
• There is also the Rugby Avenue Shared Use Path that now has a budget of $546,010. Bids for this project are due tomorrow. If they come in under budget, the schedule is to have this constructed in the summer of 2025.
• The cost estimate to build a 720 foot new sidewalk from Druid Avenue to Quarry Avenue is at $789,000. This will be built this fall. 
• The Meadowcreek Valley Trail has a cost estimate of $3.5 million and this work “provides a trail connection from Greenbrier Dr in Albemarle County to Brandywine Drive in the City of Charlottesville and includes 2 pedestrian bridges.” Construction is expected in the winter of 2027. 
• An eight-foot-wide paved tr ail between Washington Park and Madison Avenue has a cost estimate of $468,250. This is expected to be completed in the summer of 2025. 

Charlottesville’s capital improvement fund anticipates ten projects. One of them is the upgrade of Stribling Avenue with a sidewalk that now has a cost estimate of $5,678,179 and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2027. 

Sanders said the presentation was not an easy one to make but he is hopeful the city can begin to build on momentum such as the opening of the Belmont Bridge. 

“The goal is for us to get a rhythm going and get work done that we all can appreciate,” Sanders said. “But canceling projects right now is still a part of that reboot.” 

The presentation did not include any information about a project Council voted on later that evening to reallocate federal Community Development Block Grant funds to a pedestrian bridge across Pollocks Branch. (read that story)

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