More Roads in Charlottesville and Albemarle?

I’ll believe it when I drive clients on either road. I’ll bet $100, to be donated to the charity of your choice, if either of these roads gets built before 2020. Read the whole story at Charlottesville Tomorrow.

My prediction? At least two more studies before another study is recommended.

Image courtesy of Charlottesville Tomorrow.

A Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) 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 some portions of the right-of-way previously purchased for the U.S. 29 Western Bypass.  The second would connect U.S. 29 to the 250 Bypass via a partially elevated roadway near the Kroger at Hydraulic Road.

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Springer said the 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 parcels of land along the bypass’s route in the mid-1990’s 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 twenty-years after the original purchase date if they are not used.

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The other road called for in the study would be a new connector road linking Hydraulic Road with the 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.