Two Albemarle Supervisors lament lack of state transportation funding during Smart Scale discussion

There are two main ways to get funding from the Commonwealth of Virginia for transportation projects. This year the Virginia Department of Transportation is taking applications for their revenue-sharing program which requires a local match. Next year is the seventh round of the Smart Scale process.

“Pre application materials are due April 1, 2026 and final materials are due August 1,” said Tonya Swartzendruber, a planning manager with Albemarle County. “The Commonwealth Transportation Board will consider all applications and release a recommended funding scenario in January and will adopt the final six year improvement plan in June of 2027.

Localities can apply for up to four projects as can Metropolitan Planning Organizations. The Charlottesville-Area MPO got a briefing in late October. Albemarle is considering the following projects:

• A right hand turn lane at Barracks Road eastbound onto southbound U.S. 29 with a median to stop left-hand turns from westbound Barracks Road. This project comes out of the Barracks Road pipeline study. This includes a shared-use path on the south side of the road.
• A roundabout at the intersection of Old Trail and U.S. 250. This project has been submitted twice before and did not qualify for funding.
• A roundabout at Ivy Road and Canterbury Road. This and the project below came out of a pipeline study for projects in the Ivy Road / Old Ivy Road corridor.
• A roundabout at Ivy Road and Boar’s Head. Both this and the project above are intended to help assist traffic flow by eliminating left-hand turn movements.

Albemarle County received no funds in the most recent Smart Scale round but the MPO was awarded funding for a project with the title “US250/Peter Jefferson Parkway and Rolkin Road Pipeline Bundle.”

Supervisor Diantha McKeel had further questions about the Barracks Road project. A larger project for the entire corridor had been submitted in Smart Scale round six but was not funded. A smaller project with a lower cost estimate increases the chances of getting funded.

“This area is critical,” McKeel said. “We have crashes in this section weekly. And I’m not talking fender benders. I’m talking real crashes where cars are upside down.”

McKeel said the continuous median will prevent U-turn movements that lead to some of those crashes. However, she said it would take several years for the project to be built if it receives funding.

Supervisor Ned Gallaway serves on the MPO Policy Board and he expressed frustration about the process.

“When we received our last Smart Scale update from VDOT at MPO a few weeks ago, they said the next round of Smart Scale would be even more competitive than the last round, and we didn’t get anything,” Gallaway said.

Gallaway said he supports Smart Scale for selecting projects but said the Commonwealth of Virginia does not provide enough funding. Albemarle has about 150 projects on a priority list, and about a third would be candidates for Smart Scale. He said the next MPO meeting will provide an opportunity to have that bigger discussion.

“We’ve requested a complete explanation from VDOT on how transportation is funded in this state for everything,” Gallaway said.

McKeel agreed with Gallaway’s contention that the Commonwealth of Virginia underfunds transportation and counties like Albemarle will always be playing catch-up until that changes.

“We have a new administration now, and I think many of us are hoping that some changes will come about,” McKeel said. “But people cannot expect to have low taxes and have all of the transportation projects and all the schools and education that they want. It doesn’t work that way.”

Gallaway also noted that Albemarle hasn’t reprioritized its transportation list since 2019 which makes it more difficult for him as an elected official to advocate for projects at the MPO. Kevin McDermott, Albemarle’s deputy planning director, said staff felt the Comprehensive Plan update had to be completed first. (review the 2019 list)

To help set up future transportation projects, VDOT and consultants conduct other studies to suggest candidates. At the moment, there are two STARS studies underway and that stands for Strategically Targeted Affordable Roadway Solutions.

“One is from the US 29 corridor up to Hydraulic Road and one is a study of The Emmett Hydraulic 250 barracks interchange bowtie system,” said Alberic Plun, a planner in the county’s Community Development department.

Plun said work continues on those studies and there won’t be time to consider them for Smart Scale in the seventh round.

In 2022, Albemarle County received a federal planning grant to create an alignment for a trail to connect the Blue Ridge Tunnel with Charlottesville via Crozet. Work got underway this year and the county hired the firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin (VHB) to conduct the work.

“There have been multiple meetings with the technical committee, the stakeholder groups and the public,” Plun said. “Staff and consultants have conducted site visits to the potential alignment sites.”

The public will get to see three potential alignments in December.

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