The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution asking the Virginia Department of Transportation to open its portion of the Meadow Creek Parkway Wednesday.
The board voted last month to hold off on the resolution until VDOT could provide updated traffic impact studies for the intersection of Melbourne Road and Park Street in the city of Charlottesville.
In a news release Wednesday, VDOT said it expects to complete several intersections at both ends of the road and have it open to traffic in less than a month.
The new traffic data was made available Nov. 15. According to County Executive Tom Foley, there has been a less than 10 percent increase in traffic at the intersection in the last 10 years.
Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker said with the traffic counts back, he saw no reason not to approve the resolution.
“I would be in support of moving ahead with this today,” he said. “There are some good reasons that we discussed before that this thing should be open.”
The Charlottesville City Council said it would not oppose the road opening Monday, but added some conditions to that support. Among those conditions were requests to improve road striping at the Melbourne Road intersection and at the entrance to the Charlottesville-Albemarle Technical Education Center to lengthen turn lanes.
According to the release from VDOT, that work will be done before the road opens.
“Work will be coordinated with the city of Charlottesville since the signals at [the Parkway’s southern terminus] will be operated by the city along with the signal at the intersection of Melbourne Road and East Rio Road/Park Street,” VDOT said in the release. “Other improvements that will be made include restriping travel and turn lanes in several locations and modifications to the traffic signal timing to move traffic more efficiently.”
Supervisor Kenneth C. Boyd said he appreciated the city’s desire to improve traffic flow, but said the city’s desired improvements were out of the county’s hands.
“I certainly don’t have any problem with VDOT working with the city, but I think that’s between the city and VDOT,” he said.
The road was completed in October and has been declared safe to travel by VDOT. For Rooker, that should be enough to get traffic on the road.
“It says that in the resolution, once you get past all the whereas, it says be it resolved that the Meadow Creek Parkway should be open as soon as it is safe to travel,” he said.
According to VDOT, once the parkway opens, the temporary traffic light at Dunlora Drive and East Rio Road will be taken down.
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