Albemarle and Charlottesville transportation planners identify next locations for further study

In this era of social media, many express puzzlement about how various transportation projects come to be. It was likely like that before, too. In any case, this newsletter intends to get more people aware of how new infrastructure comes to be by tracking all steps of the process.

Anything that gets built is the result of a plan, and plans are created by people who are employed by various governments. Many of those entities come together at a public forum known as the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization.

“The MPO considers long-range regional projects and combines public input, technical data, and agency collaboration to develop forward-thinking solutions,” reads the entity’s splash page.

At the June 23, 2026 meeting, planners from both Albemarle County and Charlottesville made pitches for where they would like the Virginia Department of Transportation to study next. They did so after hearing from VDOT on the differences between STARS studies and Pipeline Projects. Here is a link to the presentation.

Charlottesville seeks study of Preston/McIntire intersection

This year the City of Charlottesville is pursuing Smart Scale funding for a reconfiguration of the complicated intersection of West Main, Ridge Street, South Street and Water Street. The design endorsed by the City Council would convert a portion of Water Street to one-way heading west-bound and divert east-bound traffic onto South Street.

This came out of a VDOT STARS Study which stands for Strategically Targeted Affordable Roadway Solutions. Ben Chambers, Charlottesville’s transportation planning manager, said the city wants a similar study nearby.

“The places that we looked at were basically the neighboring areas because they show up in a lot of our plans as important places that we need to take care of,” Chambers said. “So the first place I want to point to that rose to the top was Preston and McIntire.”

Chambers said there have been 89 crashes at the location over the past nine years. He said the city will be reaching out to Albemarle County as they own the land in the southwest quadrant.

Chambers said another area Charlottesville would like further study is the East High Street corridor from 10th Street NE to the U.S. 250 Bypass. Later this summer, the city will reconfigure one of the intersections along the way as part of a 60-day pilot project to test out low-cost measures. Chambers said the corridor itself may not be geographically large enough to merit state funding.

“That one we looked at and said, you know, just looking at the implementation question that might have some challenges as a standalone project, you know, through SMART Scale, we’re looking to have scoring benefits through things like congestion and access,” Chambers said.

Chambers noted that Albemarle County has a potential project that overlaps and said the city would like to be added.

Albemarle County’s requests would advance two activity center plans

Before getting into Albemarle’s requests, there are two other planning efforts to know. For one, the Board of Supervisors recently endorsed a list of transportation priorities grouped into projects for vehicles and one for bikes and pedestrians.

For another, Albemarle is seeking to create three “activity center plans.” The initial areas suggested are Pantops, a portion of the Hollymead area along Seminole Trail, and the intersection of Rio Road and U.S. 29. (read a story I wrote for C-Ville Weekly)

Albemarle has three areas that they want VDOT to further study and two of them fit in with the county’s strategy.

“For these study processes, we narrowed it down to three,” said Jessica Dimmick, principal transportation planner for Albemarle. “So I’ll be talking about the US 29 at Airport Road location, US 250 at Freebridge and I 64 exit 118 at US 29.”

Dimmick said the Airport Road intersection is connected to three of the county’s activity centers. It is also a gateway of sorts for both the University of Virginia’s North Fork Discovery Park and the county’s Rivanna Futures business park. While there’s a lot of development happening, Dimmick said the infrastructure is currently vehicle-centric.

“Facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians are lacking, and there are no crosswalks for pedestrians to cross the street,” Dimmick said. “And as part of the US 29 stars study that’s going on right now from Woodbrook to Hydraulic, the consultant did a transit propensity analysis and determined that even in that location, the development patterns are pretty far off from being ready for transit.”

Dimmick said a joint study with Charlottesville at Free Bridge could help not only address congestion but could lead to projects to provide alternatives to driving.

“It’s also about how do we make meaningful bicycle and pedestrian connections and what are the opportunities for transit,” Dimmick said.

VDOT is currently undertaking a Project Pipeline study of Exit 118 but Dimmick said the county would like to extend it and look at ways of making further connections at a place where growth is going to occur. In March, the Board of Supervisors voted 5 to 1 to approve a rezoning of up to 600 units on a tract known as the Sieg property. (read my story in C-Ville Weekly)

“The Sieg development plan includes a new traffic signal at 29 and a pedestrian crossing across 29,” Dimmick said. “And we would like to look at ways to connect pedestrians across 29 and further to the east, potentially under or over 64 and connecting into the Granger property and just making further pedestrian and bicycle connections.”

The Granger property consists of a 69 acre tract rezoned by the Board of Supervisors in August 2024 for up to 203 residential units. Learn more on cvillepedia.

The MPO adopted a resolution endorsing the recommendations.

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