VDOT report on U.S. 29 recommends 2 new roads

A Virginia Department of Transportation report on the future of U.S. 29 will recommend the consideration of two new roads in the Charlottesville area.

The first would extend the University of Virginia’s Leonard Sandridge Road using portions of the right-of-way previously purchased for the U.S. 29 Western Bypass.

The second would connect U.S. 29 to the U.S. 250 Bypass via a partially elevated roadway near the Kroger at Hydraulic Road.

VDOT hired the Parsons Transportation Group earlier this year to conduct the study, which examined the 219-mile U.S. 29 corridor between the North Carolina border and Gainesville. Joseph Springer, project manager for the study, showed conceptual drawings of the two projects to the local Metropolitan Planning Organization board last week.

Springer said the idea of a four-lane limited access Western Bypass is “no longer an effective option to serve corridor-wide trips.” However, he said the study would recommend that the right-of-way, currently owned by VDOT, be considered as a possible transportation corridor to serve local traffic. He suggested this could take the form of an extension of Leonard Sandridge Road.

“The idea is to extend the parallel road system that comes out of Places29 and taking that down to Route 250,” Springer said.

Places29 is the name of Albemarle’s master plan for the U.S. 29 corridor through the northern part of the county.

Keeping options open

Springer said the VDOT study will recommend three potential alternatives for the extension. Alternative 1 would connect Leonard Sandridge Road to the intersection of Georgetown Road and Barracks Road along a new route. Alternatives 2 and 3 would both follow portions of the Western Bypass route, with one connecting at Hydraulic Road near Albemarle High School and the other connecting onto Earlysville Road.

“It would not function as a bypass but would serve local traffic,” said Charlie Rasnick, a retired VDOT engineer who is working on the study. He said the idea was to extend the parallel roads concept.

VDOT began purchasing land along the bypass route in the mid-1990s and has spent $33.7 million to acquire at least some of the right-of-way. State law requires the agency to begin selling back those parcels 20 years after the original purchase date if they are not used.

Jeff Werner with the Piedmont Environmental Council said he was disappointed that this latest study recommends the Leonard Sandridge Road extension because two previous studies in which VDOT was involved did not.

“My feeling is that VDOT was absolutely determined to find some use for the right-of-way they acquired,” he said.

In April, a study of the extension was taken out of the MPO’s long-range transportation plan at the request of Albemarle County Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker. At the MPO meeting, Rooker told Springer he had concerns with what he called a $100 million project.

“What you’re recommending be studied is that we build a parallel road to the parallel road,” Rooker said. He added that drivers can already travel from Barracks Road to the airport without ever touching U.S. 29 by using Georgetown, Hydraulic and Earlysville roads.

Springer said the intention was not necessarily to take traffic off U.S. 29, but was instead to expand the county’s parallel network of roads.

The idea has at least the preliminary support of one business policy organization.

Foundations of support

“Any alternative to U.S. 29 will provide a measure of relief,” said Neil Williamson, director of the Free Enterprise Forum. He said the extended road would make it easier for people to get to the University of Virginia and could pave the way for additional transit options.

The proposal to extend Leonard Sandridge Road straight to Georgetown Road led residents in one county neighborhood to call a community meeting Sunday evening.

“We are very concerned about those proposals, especially Alternative 1, because of the negative impact it would have directly on our neighborhood,” said Bob Garland Jr., secretary of the Canterbury Hills Association.

The other road called for in the study would be a new connector road linking Hydraulic Road with the U.S. 250 Bypass via a new interchange. An image included in the MPO’s presentation depicts the road as passing through the existing Kroger and the Quality Inn.

Springer said the objective would be to remove traffic from the bottleneck at the U.S. 250 and U.S. 29 interchange.

Residents can review the plans and the draft study from 5 to 8 p.m. today at the Virginia Department of Forestry building near UVa’s Fontaine Research Center.